| Gabe Rood - European Soccer Blog #7 |
|
|
| on 07 Oct 2009 | |
|
Blog #7 Oct. 1 Today I met one of the top soccer minds in Portugal. He is known around FC Porto as the “Professor.” Pepijn set the meeting up and I’m very fortunate to have had the chance to meet him. I spent an hour with him, asking questions and picking his mind. His name is Vicor Frade, and he was a “mentor” for Jose Mourinho. When Bobby Robson was a coach here at FC Porto, the professor was an assistant coach along with Jose Mourinho. When Jose Mourinho came back to FC Porto (as the head coach) he had the professor watch his trainings and games. Jose Mourinho would go to the “professor” for advice and talk to him about what he saw in the trainings and games. The other coaches I was hanging out with, kept hinting to me about the importance of this man to their club. When he speaks they listen. The professor helped develop the philosophy of what they are trying to do, and is responsible for educating the coaches in the philosophy. This meeting was definitely a highlight for me as he opened my eyes to a new way of thinking and to believe 100% in your philosophy. He shared with me his philosophy on soccer, developing players, and where he sees soccer going. You may ask yourself, why one would go visit all these different clubs and talk to all these different people? Every club is different and people have different philosophies. It is very intriguing to learn about different philosophies and why people do things a certain way. By seeing all these different philosophies, one can form their own philosophy. The more experience one has the more developed the philosophy can be. For me, this is what I love. The best way I can explain this to a non-soccer person, is soccer is like a religion to people. There are many different types of ways to play soccer (as there are many religions) and they can all be the right way to the people whom believe in them. In talking with the professor, I would call him a true footballer. The game is getting faster and more athletic, but he is not concerned about the size and athletic ability of the players playing the game. He is concerned about the football and the quality of the players and the style of the game. This is the reason they don’t have coordination coaches or speed and conditioning coaches here at Porto (in the youth), as they are most concerned about the technical abilities of the player. He kept talking about FC Barcelona and the way they play. FC Porto have their own philosophy and principles and it is going to take a little time before you see it in the first team. FC Porto’s philosophy would best be described on how FC Barcelona play. This is how they want to play in the future and have started training their youth players in this way of playing. The professor is saying if they start educating now the style and principles of play they will be able to play the way they want to in the future. They are 3 years into the 5 year project. When looking at FC Barcelona they don’t have the biggest players: Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, etc… 14 of FC Barcelona’s players came from their youth academy. They realize to form a team and to play like FC Barcelona, it takes a time in educating your players. While much of the world is looking at making bigger, stronger, faster players; the professor is looking at soccer first and trying to make a better soccer player. Amen. This is what I believe in and to watch a team like FC Barcelona play, it gives me hope more people will think this way in the future. They are proving to everyone, that a team can play beautiful, attacking soccer and still win. I will try to put this conversation into a later interview, but I will need to be creative in how I present the information. I found out they (FC Porto) may not want me to post the interviews, as they don’t want there information leaking to their competition or to the press. They told me if the press were to see it, they would defiantly print it. So I will need to be creative in how I share the information. After my conversation with the professor, I got to meet with Luis Castro (again). He is the youth director and I was able to go into more detail about the project 611 project. After this I watched a couple of trainings and met with Jose Tavares, the u14 head coach and the u19 assistant coach. We spoke for around 2 hours about the structure of soccer in Portugal. I now have a good understanding of how the structure is from the u9-professional level. He was the perfect person to talk to about the organization of the leagues, national teams, and the overall structure of soccer in Portugal. He has a degree in sports management from London and he knew the structure for every age I asked. He drew the organization chart for me for each age group. He also gave me a lot of new ideas that can be replicated in the United States. One thing to note: all the leagues are open leagues and there is promotion and relegation from the u11’s and up. Just because their name is FC Porto does not mean they play in the top division in any age group. They have to earn it and Jose said this competition is necessary to put the best with the best. Thank you very much Jose. One thought to ponder. Portugal has 10 million people and are producing players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Figo, Nani, Simao, Ricardo Carvalho, Bruno Alves ect… If you think about the United States, we are 30 times the size of Portugal. Why not look at the United States like Europe? Should we look at populated areas with 10-15 million people as countries? For example: Northern California is larger than Portugal. Should this not be considered a country? What about creating 20-25 (countries) regional areas across the United States? Would this be a better way to organize our country for soccer? Tomorrow I leave for Holland. I’m going to try and make the Excelsor game in Rotterdam. On Saturday, I have a chance to go meet with Hemmet, the skills coach at Ado Den Haag or go watch Ajax youth play. I’m not sure what I will do yet. It’s difficult to go to Holland and not see Ajax. I’ve looked at the schedule and the u9, u11, u13, u18, and u19’s play for Ajax. At night, Ado Den Haag plays Groningen and I plan to see this. Tonight is my last night in Portugal. We are going to a very nice restaurant that is owned by Vitor Baia and Bruno Alves (2 FC Porto Players). I can’t thank Pepijn enough for the experience he granted me. This was a once in a lifetime experience and not something I take for granted. The people I met, the experiences, and things I was able to see will always be remembered. Once again, I can’t thank you enough. Thank you very much my friend. Gabe Rood |
|
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
