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Here we are in Abano Terme for the 22nd edition of “Città di Abano Terme” International Youth Football Tournament.
Sixteen teams coming from all over Europe
are on the streets in the town centre to join this important international sport event.
The eight Italian teams taking part in the tournament are
Inter, Milan, Juventus, Napoli, Fiorentina, Atalanta,
as well as local teams Abano and Thermal Abano.
The foreign teams are Portuguese club Benifca,
Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal from England,
Ajax from the Netherlands, Paris Saint Germain from France,
Bayer Leverkusen from Germany and Russian team Zenit Saint Petersburg.
Today we are in Abano Terme
for the 22nd edition of “Città di Abano Terme” International Youth Football Tournament.
This is one of the most important events in Italy and abroad and it aims at the U13 category.
In this area sport is mixed with a beautiful view,
with the hills surrounding the football fields.
The Euganean Hills are the ideal place to do sport in a beautiful scenery,
for instance with the hills, and the cloister bell tower right that you can see behind me.
The hills are suitable for any type of sport,
ranging from mountain bike to road cycling,
and sport is actually one of the most important focuses for the territory.
Such events are created to give a new image to our thermal baths,
and one way to do that is mixing thermal baths and sport.
The event has a high impact
and the efforts made by Consorzio Terme Euganee and the public administration
in its organisation have definitely been essential.
The aim we have is improving the tournament year by year,
we have already noticed that its quality and importance has increased
in comparison to last year’s edition.
We hope that this trend will continue
and that an increasing number of tourists and sport lovers will be involved,
so that the tournament become a benchmark
both in Italy and in Europe.
In last year’s edition we saw many talented and high level players
in Ajax, Paris Saint Germain, Juventus, Inter, Benfica…
hopefully this year we will see many new talents as well.
As far as I am concerned this event means a lot,
it means comparing oneself with different cultures and football schools.
As a young player I have never taken part to such tournaments,
but it would have been an extremely important experience
and I would have cherished those memories.
I hope these boys feel the same.
Football schools like Ajax, Benfica, Chelsea
and even Bayer Leverkusen, last year’s winner,
are doing something that we did not see in the past.
For example, let’s think about the German teams
that are now so successful in Champions League:
their physicality used to prevail over their tactic.
Now German teams are strong from both points of view.
Such a tournament is important because people involved in high level football and transfer market are there
and it is also an amazing opportunity for amateur players,
for whom great football is the target to reach.
However the first message the tournament
wants to deliver is the importance of learning football life rules and being a team,
besides becoming great football players.
I believe this is one of the greatest chances
young players can take because
many international and important football clubs are here.
It is a great showcase for 13 years-old players
because talent scouts will be watching them.
The teams will be divided into four rounds of four teams each,
and the first two teams will face each other in direct matches
until the tournament winner will be chosen.
All teams will keep on playing for the 7th to 16th places.
The tournament is an important chance
to compare the various football schools
and see how their differences and similarities originate.
In my opinion,
what is important is that in Italy
we have our own concept of football,
just as Germany, France, UK have theirs.
We have to learn to make the best of our football
and improve it according to our culture and traditions.
With my experience of former football player
and current football coach,
I want to communicate that technique is fundamental in football
and it is impossible to reach top levels without it.
Physicality comes after,
when the players are older,
not when they are playing in the U13
I think that teaching football technique to our players
is the most important thing to do at this stage of their careers
We do our best to teach our boys
how to play football and entertain people.
The focus is not winning the match,
but letting the spectators see amazing football.
I believe that in this way we give a good technical
and tactical basis to our players.
This is why it is easier for them to go abroad
and play with other clubs,
we can see many boys raised by Ajax
playing in the best teams in Europe.
They all developed their basic skills
thanks to Ajax football school.
English football is often associated
with passion and physical matches.
We actually think that football is technique,
we have a goal oriented mentality
and attack is the focus of our football.
Training is very important for us,
we focus on attacking,
how to pass the ball,
playing football with passion and giving emotions.
We train our boys *** specific aspects,
that is dribbling, ball handling and shooting.
My focuses during trainings are technical skills,
I concentrate on the features of the boys,
whether they are left or right-footed,
and ball possession.
During the years spent at Ajax football school
we do our best to make the boys grow,
on the football fields and a little bit of tactic skills
to have a complete football preparation.
I want the guys to know what to do and when,
and that they handle the ball well,
using all the allowed body parts
to throw the ball where they want.
Corrado Grabbi from Juventus,
Casimir Westerveld from Ajax and Robert Dipple
have different concepts of football,
but they all have a common goal,
that is helping young players dreaming
dreaming to be the next biggest champions grow.
I believe the dream of all children
is becoming a professional football player.
There is a big difference with the past:
when I started playing football
I did not think about becoming a professional player,
I only thought about playing.
Today it is different,
television made information more accessible.
When I was 9 I only played because I loved football,
I did not even think about becoming a professional player,
it was such a big dream that I only wanted to have fun.
Now people,
especially parents in some cases, see things differently.
The aim of all players is joining the first team
and becoming a great player by training hard,
because they want to be professional players
in the English championship or anywhere in the world.
Our dream is to continuously raise
new generations of players.
The final match of 22nd edition of “Città di Abano Terme”
International Youth Football Tournament
was won by Benfica,
who beat Ajax 1-0 on extra time
with a penalty scored by Pedro Alvaro
in the last minutes.
More than 2000 spectators were in Stadio delle Terme
to watch the final match of this exciting tournament
and the group and individual award ceremony that came after.
In the 3rd place match,
Milan won over Manchester City 1-0.
The individual awards were given to promising young talents
like Simmonds from Manchester City,
who won the top goal-scorer prize,
and Tariq Lamptey from Chelsea,
who was awarded as the best player of the tournament.
Now see you at next year’s edition,
which will certainly be as successful as this year’s
and will confirm the international importance of the event.
As I have already said,
the tournament was created 22 years ago,
but it has never had such important teams
and arisen so much enthusiasm.
Eight Italian football clubs
and eight from abroad were involved,
we wanted to have the best teams
for the U13 category
and I believe we succeeded