With Manchester United already having started a soccer school in the city, and Real Madrid and Chelsea recently announcing their intentions to do the same, the giants of European football obviously see our city as fertile territory to nurture young talent. After claiming victory in last December’s FIFA Club World Cup at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Inter Milan got in on the act by teaming up with the Abu Dhabi Sports Council to start an academy for youngsters aged nine-11. In charge of the project is Marco Monti, who, with 10 years as a soccer pro – including spells with Serie A clubs Lazio and Atlanta – under his belt and a further 15 years teaching at the Inter Milan academy in Italy, knows a thing or two about the beautiful game. We spoke to him about the state of youth football in Abu Dhabi
Why set up the academy in Abu Dhabi then?
It was an opportunity our owner saw some years ago. The Middle East is an area that is very passionate about football, but the standards need improving if it is to reach the levels of Europe and South America. But there is the wealth here to help facilitate this improvement.
You’ve just finished the first academy session. What’s the standard of young players over here?
They are very good, but they must work harder. Sure, it’s important to find good players, but hard work is the most important part of becoming a professional footballer. There are players here with good technical quality, but they need to work on their physical and mental attitude. Some children here have everything they want. They have nice houses, but having money is nothing in sport and attitude is everthing. You must train your body and mind to reach the top.
What do you teach the children?
They already have good technical skills, so we try to improve their physical qualities because some of them are quite unhealthy. So this also a social project, because a lot of children are obese because they eat junk food and spend all day in front of the television.
Are the classes open to anyone?
At the moment yes, whoever wants to come can come. But in the future, we will want to choose the most skilled players and start to work on improving their quality.
Do you see Manchester United and Real Madrid’s academies as rivals?
Not really. We use a different strategy to them. They sell the brand to other companies who then organise the academy for them. We are directly linked to Inter because my staff and I are paid by Inter. We want to do this academy because we feel we can play a real role in improving football in the UAE and we will invest a lot of time in this. For us it is important to spread our knowhow all over the world.
Are there enough young Inter fans in the city who want to come to the academy?
There are definitely more than before, especially after Inter won the the FIFA Club World Cup. We hope to have more because when children see a team win they become a fan. When AC Milan were winning a lot of games a few years ago, a lot of children were their fans. Now we are doing well, it may change.
Do you think one day a player from your academy will play for Inter?
This is our final objective. We hope we can produce a first team player one day. But it is important that we don’t put pressure on the youngsters. It will be a slow improvement and this won’t happen in one or two years.
Dhs1,000 per session. Open to children aged nine-12. The next sessions run from April 10-13 at Zayed Sports City. For more information, call 02 403 4200 or visit www.zsc.ae
