UNDERSCORING the importance of youth development, the Philippine Football Federation has forged a partnership with Germany in honing the skills of future Azkals.
The PFF on Friday launched the youth football technical development assistance, an initiative of the German Olympic Sports Confederation, which lent Uefa-licensed coach Thomas Roy who will oversee a two-year development program in the country.
“We want to raise the bar of our standards in the grassroots,” PFF president Mariano “Nonong” Araneta Jr. said on Friday when he officially introduced Roy to the media.
The 45-year-old German actually arrived with his wife and four kids last September and has since started to do his work as a technical consultant, having already been to Bacolod, Mindoro, and Cebu to scout talent.
Roy, whose stay in the country is funded solely by the German government, has also been with the boys’ Under-16 team in Jakarta and the Under-19 squad in Kuala Lumpur in their respective Asian Football Confederation qualifiers campaigns.
“I will try to be a very good consultant and give my impressions,” said Roy, who has 15 years of coaching experience.
The two-year partnership, which could be extended, according to Araneta, is to help improve technical skills of not only the kids, but also the coaches.
Among Roy’s roles is to guide coaches in talent identification and to target the best talent between 13 and 16 years old all over the archipelago.
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