Youth Development: Emulating Brazil’s “Mass Production of Players”

By: Laurie | December 12th, 2007

Let’s talk youth development..

When England failed to qualify for Euro ‘08, it got people talking about what needs to be done for the future. Since the US faces a lot of the same issues, if on a different scale, we could learn from the discussion now going on.

One of the more interesting articles I read on the topic was an interview from a couple of weeks ago with the current South Africa coach, the Brazilian Carlos Alberto Parreira, where he talks about how England could learn from Brazil’s approach to the development of young players.

Brazil is an interesting case, because the country is busy populating the best teams in the world with their players. A number of the top European sides boast at least one Brazilian on their rosters, and there are more Brazilians players in the Champions League than any other nationality. (France, which also has a strong youth development system, is second.)

“We have a mass production of players,” Parreira said. “I call it the factory. When a player is nine, he is already being evolved by a club. At 19, he has already had 10 years’ organised football. That’s why Brazil have so many good players, playing in the first division of Brazil aged 19.” …

“There are no street players in Brazil any more. Players are built in clubs. This is the strength of Brazilian football. It is not about Pele, Kaka, Ronaldinho - it is about the system that produces them. This year we will transfer 1,300 players abroad. Ronaldinho at Barcelona and Kaka at Milan are role models for young Brazilian players to follow.”

What do you think? Should the Red Bulls start signing nine-year-olds?

Another recent interesting interview was with Alfred Galustian, the international director of Coerver Coaching, a coaching program. Okay, sure, the director of a for-profit coaching program has a vested interest in saying that players could benefit from his knowledge. But what he says rings true.

“I feel that English players are technically weak when compared to the Spanish, Italian and the French. The Spanish defenders for example are so comfortable on the ball when compared to, let’s say, John Terry or Micah Richards. Technically, they are far superior than the physically robust English defenders. It’s got to do with the fact that in England, the emphasis has been largely towards speed and physical strength rather than skill.”

The “speed and physical strength only” criticism is also frequently leveled at MLS, but even moreso.

But the US is starting to move in the right direction. One example: The US Soccer Development Academy. Its goal, according to U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati, is to “shift the focus of our young elite players from an ‘overburdened, game emphasis’ model to a ‘meaningful training and competition’ model.”

Sounds promising. Think it will bear fruit before the 2010 World Cup?