Young players at the Footy4U camp. Photo: Timmy Cutugno

The Footy4U April 2015 camp was held at De La Salle College grounds earlier this month.

Three foreign coaches, Italians Massimo Sarci and Francesco Nuti, and Norwegian Anton Severin, conducted various sessions for the young hopefuls who attended, aged between eight and 15.

Sarci is one of the coaches employed by renowned club Anderlecht at their youth development centre, the football hub in Belgium that produced quality players the likes of Eden Hazard, Vincent Kompany and Romelu Lukaku.

This was his first visit to the islands and he was impressed with the level of most of those who attended the training camp.

“Technically, the Maltese boys are really good,” Sarci said.

“If we had the possibility of working all year round on various aspects in a young player’s development process, they would be able to make it abroad, including at our own academy.”

At Anderlecht, he said, great emphasis is made on the cognitive aspect in young players as in recent years skills have become naturally imbued in the process.

“Aspects like technique do not change much along the years, what changes is the ability to make a decision quicker than your opponent,” Sarci explained during a break from training.

“In the early developing years of a player we are careful to monitor the various motor skills, coordination and all movements related to the game which are duly studied by our experts.

“In particular, we see that the player becomes more efficient when making the right decisions and, very importantly, control his emotions in key moments of the game.”

Andrea Vella is the Footy4U camp organiser.

He reckons similar activities for young players are needed for them to flourish. Local coaches also stand to gain from the experience.

“These training programmes are needed as our players continue to develop and learn different skills,” he said.

“Our players and coaches at these kind of camps have an opportunity to improve.”

Nuti also praised the level of the players who attended training at De La Salle College, in Cottonera.

Nuti, who works at the Empoli youth academy, said: “In my opinion some of the Maltese players are technically-gifted and at a par with those in some of our academies in Italy.

“Perhaps, what’s lacking is the intensity... that would make them better players.”

Unlike Sarci, Nuti has been coming to Malta regular these past four years. He has seen improvement in the level of football played at junior levels.

“Before, clubs in Italy would laugh off my suggestions to go for a Maltese player,” he said, “but now the trend is changing.

Conor Borg will be joining Roma and that’s a good move for him. An experience with a foreign club inspires players from small countries to toughen up and mature quickly.

“At our elite Empoli academy, we had three Maltese players training with us and I can say that one of them, in particular, did pretty well and left a very good impression.”