MONTHLY NEWSLETTER July 2022
Coach's Note Sandro Salami Head of Youth
Dear parents and guardians, After a hectic month of pre season and selection camps in June, July has been relatively more spaced out at Young Champs. We finally have all of our players in, and we are at full capacity for the first time in 2 years! With testing and pre-season out of the way, we now focus on training and most importantly, playing as many competitive games as possible! Our coaches are hard at work finding suitable opponents for the players, and we are excited about playing lots of games in the coming months. In the next few months, the U-15s, U-16s, and U-17s will participate in the Mumbai Football Association (MFA) League, which is Mumbai's biggest youth football competition.
The U-19s will be participating in the Super Division, which will give them a good opportunity to play against senior teams and get a taste of real competitive football. Our Development Squad players (U13s) will be participating in this season's Sub-Junior I-League as well! This is a great chance for them to get minutes and develop the basics before making the step up into the Academy properly. We are also working to try and organise international exposure trips for our boys, and hopefully, we will have positive news on that front soon! As always, we have curated some of the best action from the month gone by for your viewing pleasure.
Counsellor's Note Padma Rewari Head of Child Welfare and Education
Dear parents and guardians, It gives me great pleasure to start this month's note off with some fantastic news! All of our boys from grade X and XII have cleared their board exams! It was especially difficult for the grade XII boys who were simultaneously participating in the Reliance Foundation Development League, and had to travel in between games back to Mumbai in order to sit for their exams. We are all really proud of their commitment to training and studies, and they are setting a wonderful example for the younger boys here! School has begun in full swing for our CBSE and NIOS boys, and everyone is hard at work studying and training.
Elsewhere, the U-14s have come in finally, and after a long time, Beverly Park feels alive and vibrant again! As always with new kids, there were some initial issues in the minds of the parents and kids, a lot of whom were going away from home for the first time, but, everyone feels a lot more settled and at ease here now! We will be hard at work over the coming month to ensure the players can manage their time for studies and training effectively. I'm sure the example set by their seniors will be a great source of inspiration for them!
RFYC Selection Camp 2022 We recently concluded scouting for its U-14 batch. Made up of players born in 2009, with a few from 2008 and 2010 as well, the Academy continued its new partnership with Artificial Intelligence based scouting platform AiSCOUT to find the best talents across the country. AiSCOUT came good once more, allowing us to access vast regions of the country, and helping us find some really quality players from regions we could not access previously.
After a long selection process during which the scouting department scanned the length and breath of India conducting trials wherever possible, the best 60 players were invited for the final selection camp in Mumbai between June 21 and 28, 2022. The players were put through a tough week consisting of training sessions and games every evening in order for the coaches to be able to find the very best talents to be invited to train and develop as Young Champs.
Spotlight Aarush Hari U - 15 Goalkeeper
Tell us a little about yourself. My name is Aarush Hari. I play as goalkeeper. I am from Pune and I am 13 years old. I started playing football at the age of 8. I was always a goalkeeper mostly because I've always been taller than most boys my age. I first started playing for my school team and then my interest grew stronger, so i joined an academy in Pune called Lions Academy, and after 2 years of playing there, I got a chance to try out for RFYC, and here I am now!
After a long selection process, you finally became a Young Champs player! What was the process like for you? It was a great feeling to get selected. The process was hard but I gave my best, and I am grateful to be here!
What are you enjoying most about YC so far? I enjoy the training and the coaching most at YC. In a short span of time, I already feeel like I have learned a lot! Though i still have a long way to go.
Who is your football idol? Tell us what you most admire about them. My football idol is Manuel Neuer. I admire his confidence and the attacking style in which he plays. His shot stopping is second to none, and he's great with the ball at his feet too!
If you were a player in FIFA or PES, what would your rating be, and which club would you be playing for? If I was ever on FIFA/PES, I would be playing in Manchester United and my rating would be 89.
Spotlight Devan Daniel Coach
Tell us a little about yourself. I love football, traveling and music. Since I have family both in India and Italy, I was fortunate to live, learn, and work within two different communities. Traveling and living in different continents definitely has made me learn to look at life from a broader perspective. Lucky for me, I also enjoy both Indian and Italian cuisine, which I feel are the best in the world!
You’ve coached abroad and in India. How do you see the player development culture evolving in India? At a youth level, there is a lot of talent in India. But there is also a lot of work to do. Though the interest in football is kicking in, there are very few institutions that are doing the work needed on the ground level to ensure proper player development. We need setups like RFYC in every part of India. Not economically speaking, but replicating our football model, believing in the right age talent and trusting the process, rather than immediate results should be the only way forward. Part of the process is also allowing the youth coming out of academies to play in the professional divisions rather than old and experienced players especially at a I-League 2 and Elite Division level. It is a joy to see younger talent like Aakash Mishra, Suresh and Lalengmawia in the National Team, and hopefully more youngsters are given a chance to wear that jersey and build a promising future for India.
How would you define your “coaching philosophy”?
I like to create game intelligent players. Guide them but also give them freedom to try and learn. I would like to transmit knowledge and confidence to them and make them believe in a common goal. The style of play should depend on the capabilities of the players as well as dealing with the opponent’s behavior but also with intent to try and control the game and play attacking football.
What are some qualities you look for when scouting a young player? At a foundation level the player should simply love to face the challenges he's faced with, a decent level of ball mastery skills, as well as decision making. If you have a talent (player) who is technically and mentally sound and is hungry to learn, that is all it takes to convince me!
We'd love to hear from you. Please write to us at contact@rfyounchamps.org