Garavaglia willing to boost Balzan youth drive

Balzan Youths’ mid-table position in the current BOV Premier League standings is testament to this modest club’s determination to retain their top-flight status but their vision goes beyond the senior team.

In keeping with their name, Balzan Youths also appear to have upped their efforts to boost their youth sector and the recent visit of Italian coach Elio Garavaglia proves this.

Garavaglia possesses an eye-catching CV as he has been part of the youth coaching staff of Italian giants Milan for 20 years, working with the likes of Fabio Capello and Franco Baresi.

It’s something of a coup for Balzan that they have enlisted the help of an experienced coach like Garavaglia as part of their drive to bolster youth development but their biggest challenge perhaps lies with implementing his proposals as the 54-year-old comes across as a driven and demanding coach.

Garavaglia is not the archetypal interviewee as he’s very inquisitive and likes to engage in discussion. Upon meeting Garavaglia at a Balzan cafeteria, we immediately began to talk about the difficulties hindering youth development in Maltese football.

I opined that Maltese football can never make the desired leap in quality unless we change our mentality and take the game more seriously, especially in so far as ensuring that our youths receive proper coaching, but Garavaglia promptly replied: “Mentality, I agree, but that is a very vast and vague word. You need to delve deeper and identify solutions for problems.”

It soon became apparent that Garavaglia takes a lot of pride in his work as well as his long association with AC Milan where he has helped to groom several players, including Rossoneri defender Ignazio Abate and Juventus striker Alessandro Matri who started his career with Milan.

“As a member of the coaching staff at AC Milan, I look after the development of youth players in Italy and overseas,” Garavaglia said.

“My role is that of technical supervisor of the Milan School and all the clubs that have a twinning agreement with Milan.

“I visit these clubs to monitor their coaches and players and give them advice on their work.

“This year, I’m focusing mainly on our partner club in Hong Kong.”

It was during his working stint with the Milan School in Australia that Garavaglia became good friends with Anton Tagliaferro, Balzan’s sponsor, who invited the Italian coach to visit the Premier League club.

“I have friends here at Balzan,” Garavaglia continued. “Whenever I can devote some of my time to Balzan Youths, I come here willingly to give the club some advice on youth football.

“Balzan are already working to renew their youth sector. They want to give their young players the possibility to improve in many aspects and, under the guidance of Silvan Ciscaldi, they are clearly willing to go forward.”

Having spent most of his time observing youth players and coaches during training in his two visits to Malta this year, Garavaglia delivered a frank assessment of the level of youth football education in our country.

“My impressions... there is clearly a lot of enthusiasm for football and that is very positive in the youth sector,” Garavaglia said.

“Generally-speaking, the youths have not fully absorbed the idea of how important it is to practise sport and to do it seriously. But, this must be addressed by their educators.

“It’s the educators’ responsibility to give the right information and preparation to the youths but perhaps, even they haven’t fully understood the demands of this sport and the important role they have in developing these youngsters.

“In few words, I believe that the level of competence must be raised.

“From what I’ve seen, something is missing in youth football here. There is talent, as in every country, but young players aged 15 to 16, have certain weaknesses and the coaches must do more to help them develop properly.”

Like all the top clubs in world football, Milan have a vast scouting network and their academy is an important tool in offering professional training to children in different parts of the world.

“The club sends us, the coaches, to see up-and-coming players while promoting the image of AC Milan overseas,” Garavaglia said.

“Moving players to Italy at a young age is not good for their education. At Milan, we prefer to establish partnerships in different countries. We already have a dozen clubs affiliated with Milan and have many other requests.

“During the year, many young players are invited for trials at AC Milan. They do a number of tests but our main objective is to make them happy and give them the chance to see how professional players work.”

Garavaglia is heartened by the Balzan administration’s response to new ideas.

“I believe Balzan Youths have understood the message,” he said.

“They’re doing their best to change this mentality but it’s not easy. I’m confident that, in the future, they will reap the benefits of their on-going work.”

Friendly relationship

Garavaglia acknowledged Tagliaferro’s crucial role in introducing him to Balzan Youths.

“I know Anton Tagliaferro, who is the main sponsor of Balzan Youths,” Garavaglia said.

“Anton loves Malta, he’s always thinking about his country and I think he wants to come and live here.

“It was thanks to him that I came to Malta. I have established a rapport of friendship with George Borg (Balzan Youths president), Peter Cipriott and Silvan (Ciscaldi).

“As I said, I visit Balzan Youths to help out and see my friends.”