Youth player progression central to UEFA technical director workshop
Friday, September 20, 2024
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National association development experts have discussed player pathways from youth into senior international teams.
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How can European football ensure it is doing everything it can to produce the best talent possible?
That was the key question posed this week at the second part of UEFA's Conference for National Team coaches and Technical Directors in Berlin as development experts convened to share ideas and best practices for nurturing and developing young players.
Positive signs for bright stars
The summer's UEFA European Championship highlighted a wealth of emerging talent, with several young players starring in Germany including Spain's eventual winners Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams and England midfield pair Jude Bellingham and Kobbie Mainoo.
Players born after 1 January 2003 played a total of 5,364 minutes at EURO 2024 compared to 3,634 minutes at EURO 2016, demonstrating that coaches are becoming more willing to give opportunities to young talent.
"EURO 2024 signalled the emergence of many rising stars, not just European champions, and there is enough to guarantee the future of European football is in good and safe hands."
But it remains vital that associations continue to shape pathways to ensure young players reach their potential.
Maurizio Viscidi (Italy), Unai Melgosa Zorrilla (Ukraine) and Stipe Pletikosa (Croatia) each shared some of the success stories from their associations, which include adapting coaching methods to different generations, the importance of focusing on grassroots to elite pathways and adopting effective scouting systems.
"We always encourage young players in our youth national teams to make mistakes," explained Pletikosa, the Croatian Football Federation (HNS) technical director. "We support them a lot, and this makes a big difference when they step into the senior team."
Ukraine Under-21 coach Melgosa Zorrilla echoed the importance of a supportive environment, explaining: "It's very exciting to see people you worked with reach the senior team. Having talent is not something that guarantees future success; it generates expectations, but you need to temper those expectations. Sometimes it springs, but sometimes it fades away if you don't create the right conditions."
How UEFA's youth tournaments prepare players for senior international football
UEFA organises Under-15 and U16 development tournaments for boys and girls as an introduction to international football for elite youth players. Since 2012 these events, which focus more on playing opportunities and development than competition, have provided valuable experience in facing different playing styles and sampling a tournament environment away from home. This helps to prepare them for the more competitive UEFA U17 and U19 EURO tournaments, which in turn offer a pathway into U21 and senior football.
Insights from a coaching legend
Joining the discussion was Arsène Wenger, who during a long club coaching career became renowned for blooding and developing young players. He is now FIFA chief of global football development, and shared his views with UEFA's head of technical education & development Olivier Doglia on the important factors in ensuring players can reach their potential.
"I often say that you build a player like a house," said the Frenchman. "The first floor is technique, from age five to 12, where you see if they are coordinated and have quality. After that, from 12 to 16, the physique, do they have a chance to survive at the top level?
"From age 15 or 16, it's the tactical level; does he understand what’s [happening] on the pitch? The last aspect, the roof, is the mental aspect, a combination of intelligence and motivation. If you have no roof, it will rain and the rest is useless. At 17, you know the talent. After that, the mental aspect allows you to develop. In my experience in life, very few people go as far as they can. This final part of the player makes the difference."
Wenger believes the relationship between a player and their coach is imperative to ensuring progression. "Some players, when they play in front of 60,000 people for the first time, you can feel it's their world and they are not inhibited; others are a bit more nervous and you need to be patient and show you believe in them," he explained. "A coach has to build trust between themselves and the players. They need consistency in belief and behaviour. That's absolutely vital in developing players."
Important dialogue for enhancing the future of the game
To help UEFA shape the future of European football development, the conference also provided the perfect opportunity to listen to insights and recommendations from technical directors on how we can support national associations in four key areas:
Grassroots football: how we can ensure everybody has the opportunity to play the game in a safe and quality-controlled environment.
Elite youth player development: how we improve development standards to prepare elite young players for the demands of top-level football.
Performance analysis and technical reports: how our world-class technical analysis of UEFA competitions can support the education and development of coaches at all levels.
Coach education: how we can ensure European football is at the forefront of improving coaching standards.