| Gabe Rood - European Soccer Blog #5 |
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| on 01 Oct 2009 | |
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Blog #5 9-28-09 Today was an amazing day. I met a bunch of new people within the club (FC Porto) and was able to see the life of the youth players by hanging out with them at their house. This afternoon Pepijn took me to the Casa De Dragao, which is a house in the middle of Porto, that houses 47 youth players of FC Porto. There are actually two separate houses. One house has 33 players aged 13-17 and the other house has 14 player aged 17-19. These players come from all around the world: Turkey, Canada, Sweden, Slovakia, Brazil, Angola, Spain, Senegal, Chec Republic, Portual, and the United States. The majority of the players are from Portugal (around 65-70% are from Portugal). I went to coffee with the director of the house and 3 of his staff members. They were great people. They took me on a tour of the house and answered every question I asked. The house, houses close to 50 of Porto’s top talents from around the world. The house has 4 full time staff, and many part-time staff members that try to make life as close to normal for these young players. The full time staff includes: 2 physiologist, 1 social services worker, and 1 science in education. The part time staff included: 2 cooks, tutors, and a nutritionist (I know there are more, but I forgot what they were). The players are taken care of well. The staff members act as parents, role models, disciplinarians, a shoulder to cry on, etc… Every player that I saw was very happy and in a great mood. The staff members and Porto have done a great job creating a natural environment for the players to live in. The head of the house is a man by the name of Angelo Santos. He explained to me the daily schedule of the players and what they are trying to provide for them. Each age is a little different, but for the most part they live very normal lives. They have a partnership with a local public school, where the boys attend. His goal is to create an environment that is as close to normal as possible. It is much different than other soccer academies around the world, where the kids only live in the academy (institution). These boys are in the middle of Porto, and are living lives similar to other kids in Porto. A great quote he used was, “ these boys have to cross the street on their own”. He meant that they have to make their own decisions. They are looked after very closely and always have an adult on site to help guide them, but they are not stuck in an artificial environment. They have daily progress reports with the school, constant health check ups, are given a small allowance, and certain rules to keep the house orderly. Most of the players have 2-3 players in a room, but some players have their own room (if they request). The biggest thing that makes it tough on the boys is being away from their family. However, they are allowed to go home during the weekends (when they don’t have games, generally only the boys from Portugal), Easter, summer and they are in constant contact through e-mail and telephone. These boys all have a dream of making it to the top and realize they have to sacrifice to make their dreams a reality. The players do not pay anything to live in the house, this is taken care of by FC Porto. It costs FC Porto about 1,200 euros a month, per players to run Casa de Dragao. I want to thank Angelo Santos and his staff for taking the time to answer all my questions. Stay tuned: I interviewed 2 other people today. Samir Badr a 17 year old GK from the United States and Joao Brandao the U15 coach. Tomorrow I have interviews set up with Tiago Moreira (u10 & u11 coach) and the Youth Technical Director, Luis Castro. I have to find the time to enter my notes into a computer, so it may take a few days. Tomorrow is a busy day as I’m going to watch the u17’s play the u19’s, Pepijns training, and the big champions league game between FC Porto and Atletico Madrid. Gabe Rood |
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