Category: Features & Opinions (page 3 of 8)

Rio Ferdinand on Work Ethic

We often talk about sport for sports sake, or letting children play sport just for fun, but there’s one very important lesson that sport teaches us and it is the need to develop a solid work ethic to succeed in any field.

And this is what Rio Ferdinand, one of England’s best defenders, talks about here in this video. Speaking to youth at the Oxford Union Society on the importance of work ethic, Rio tells us that as players, leaders, managers and coaches, we need to be able to criticize ourselves first, before we criticize anybody else.

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Grassroots Football Dictionary – 1

A little Grassroots Football Dictionary that applies to all – kids, coaches, parents! Chin up and keep working hard!

Grassroots Football Dictionary 1

A Talent for Learning

He was twice voted European Midfielder of the Year, guided his team to two consecutive Champions League finals, was wanted by Real Madrid but never sold to them, scored one of the best goals ever in the 1999 Copa del Rey final, is considered one of the very best and remorseless, cold-eyed penalty takers in history, and till today, is regarded as one of the all-time greats at his club. If you haven’t guessed yet, we’re talking about Gaizka Mendieta of Valencia CF.  (Goodness knows, Gary Neville could do with a player of his class right now! But we digress…)

Here’s Mendieta’s goal from that Copa del Rey final – WOOF!!!!

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Messi Chats with La Masia Kids

Here’s a lovely video of La Masia captains, from the U10s right up to the U19s, having a chat with one Lionel Messi. Enjoy it!
WATCH: Messi interviewed by La Masia captains – ESPN Video

Lessons from Bilbao

In a world of multi-million pound transfers, eye-watering wages and superstar lifestyles off the pitch, here’s a European football club that is refreshingly different – steeped in tradition and nearly completely dependent on their academy, the ‘Lezama’, to provide a pipeline of talent to the first team. This is Athletic Club Bilbao.

Athletic, as they are commonly referred to in Spain, was founded over a century ago in 1898 and won the Copa del Rey title 23 times and numerous Spanish league titles before Real Madrid and Barcelona began their dominance. Coming from a country that has several thousand football clubs, Athletic stand out because they are known to only recruit players who come from the Greater Basque country that covers the north-east of Spain and some parts of France. Despite the limitations, some of the outstanding talents that have played for the club in recent times include Ander Herrera, now at Manchester United, Javi Martinez, now at Bayern Munich, and Fernando Llorente, now at Sevilla.

Athletic Bilbao

The Athletic Team Ready for a Match
Source: Athletic Club Facebook Page

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Star Sports Young Heroes Gear Up for Spain

Star Sports Young Heroes Program

Coach Jamshid Nassiri shares tips with the boys
Source: Young Heroes Facebook

In August last year, Star Sports launched an interesting campaign called Young Heroes. A unique scouting and Under-15 football tournament, the campaign was started to boost grassroots football in the country, and unearth hitherto unknown football talents for the future. Conducted in 15 cities across India, around 60 to 100 schools from each city were invited to participate in the Young Heroes program. The competition attracted approximately 420,000 students  and matches were played for two days in every city. These matches were attended by a group of scouts headed by ex-Iranian football international, Jamshid Nassiri, who selected 3-4 boys from each team to participate in a training camp.

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Farewell, Saira

Saira Sirohi

Swimming prodigy Saira Sirohi
Source: Times Now Facebook

India shed a few tears earlier this week on Monday when it learned of Saira Sirohi’s tragic suicide. Saira, just 16 years old, was a prodigious national-level swimmer who had amassed 110 medals across various age categories over the years. She had been identified as an elite talent, a future Olympics probable, and only some months ago, swam for 15 hours without stopping at her school pool in Ghaziabad covering a lung-busting 38 kilometres.

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Football for Fun

For children, playing a sport is important – not just because it benefits them physically, or socially, but because they have fun. They get to meet different children, and learn about new experiences. Running around with their friends, scoring a goal, or joining in the celebrations when a friend scores a goal – that’s what kids care about, and that’s why they play sport.

Grassroots football plays an important role in trying to keep that spark alive in children. Football coaching, or coaching in general, isn’t just about being the coach with the team that wins, it’s about being the coach who is respected, and being the coach who kids want to train with. We need to remember what it felt like to be young, and run about with friends and have fun. Sport isn’t always about winning or losing – it’s about learning how to play the game right, and having a jolly good time while you do!

Indian Olympian Rues Lack of Support for Sport

Viren Rasquinha

Viren Rasquinha, former captain of the Indian field hockey team, just wrote a heartfelt letter in the Indian Express to Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, India’s third largest state. In the letter, which is written in the context of the upcoming Rio Olympics this year, Rasquinha touches on some points that a lot of us sports fans in India feel very deeply about. And while it is written to an administrator in India, we believe that the points Viren has raised are applicable to cities and nations across the world.

Here are some of the issues that resonated with us:

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Nothing’s Gonna Stop Him

We came across this video of George, a Gerard Deulofeu fan, uploaded by his dad, Dave Shaw on Twitter. Ain’t nothing going to stop this lad. What a great inspiration. A lot of us could do with some of that spirit!

May the force be with you, George! #NeverGiveUp

The original video can be found here.

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