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- Herausgeber: Meyer & Meyer Sport
- Kategorie: Lebensstil
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016
Soccer players and coaches alike admire the German national team for their combination of individual qualities and teamwork, leading to some of the most creative soccer being played during the 2014 World Championship. The roots for the German team's success can be found in the youth training practiced in German soccer clubs. Most professional soccer clubs in Germany have their own youth academy where the next Bundesliga stars are formed. Of the 2014 World Cup squad, only Miroslav Klose was not trained in one of these academies. In this book, the system used for German soccer youth development is explained with particular emphasis on the different paths that young players can take on the road to success. World Champions and rising star players present their individual stories and some of the exercises that improve their strengths and remove their weaknesses. This book contains many interviews with former Bundesliga stars, soccer experts, and youth and professional coaches as well as an overview of the youth development program of an ambitious amateur club. Some of the star players interviewed include Marco Reus, Manuel Neuer, and Shkodran Mustafi as well as rising stars Sebastian Rode and Maximilian Arnold. This book is for everyone who's interested in the German Soccer Association's talent nurturing and different perspectives on the preparation of young players for a professional soccer career.
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Seitenzahl: 221
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Contents
The content of this book was carefully researched. However, all information is supplied without liability. Neither the authors nor the publisher will be liable for possible disadvantages or damages resulting from this book.
PREFACE
In recent years, a team was formed from exceptionally well-trained players that rightfully won the world championship title in Brazil. Thus, a success was created whose foundation and development I was able to closely follow at various clubs during my time as a professional soccer coach in Germany. Starting at the turn of the millennium, the DFB (German Soccer Association) set the decisive course for today’s success with its support program for soccer talent and its youth performance centers. It is the reason why today the Bundesliga is the best league in the world, the number one, 100 %.
My own work as a coach is very much shaped by youth soccer. During my own pro soccer career, I coached PSV Eindhoven’s U15 players and later became PSV’s youth coordinator. No matter where I subsequently coached pro soccer, I always have and still do watch the games of the respective youth teams as a matter of course, and in recent years, I have noticed an enormous increase in quality.
German soccer has always placed importance on a strong body and positive mindset, but the decisive factor, namely the ball, was gradually installed as the foundation pillar in training center philosophy: ball control, solving different game situations, and creativity with the ball. These are just a few important elements that should be emphasized in training.
It was also important to think outside the box and find inspiration from other soccer nations. The prerequisite for this success is learning from others and thereby improving oneself.
The foundation for pro soccer is training, which is where qualifications are created. Of course, let’s not forget that we professional coaches also profit. My younger fellow coaches in the Bundesliga, who in some cases completed their own training in the youth performance centers, are further proof of this positive development.
While the introduction of the U17 and U19 Junior Bundesliga has created a high performance level and, of course, everyone wants to win, the first priority should always be the training of players rather than the result. Titles aren’t that important in youth soccer. What matters is content.
Irrespective of the fast pace of day-to-day business in pro soccer, development and continuity are the defining features. Youth soccer is about the future. All the work done in youth soccer must be future-oriented.
This book provides us with an excellent insight into the training philosophy of different Bundesliga teams and teaches us about the diversity and complexity of talent development. Moreover, it shows us the different paths of players. These examples are proof that performance fluctuations and setbacks can already occur during youth training and that it is not always the biggest talents who become successful professionals.
Talent is a prerequisite, but you must constantly prove yourself and can never become complacent. Rather, you must possess the ambition, tenacity, and will to continue to improve. I would like for young players to muster the necessary patience in spite of their ambition. Even when you get tons of praise from lots of people after a couple of good games, you must still keep your feet firmly on the ground.
But mistakes should and must be made, especially while young, because we learn from them. Only then can you take the next step, and it increases the likelihood of achieving your goals.
I hope you enjoy this book!
Huub Stevens
Huub Stevens, long-time Bundesliga coach at VfB Stuttgart, Hamburger SV, Schalke 04, 1. FC Köln, and Hertha BSC© picture-alliance.com/dpa
INTRODUCTION
On July 13, 2014, along with friends and approximately 37 million other German viewers, we intently watched the World Cup final in Brazil against Argentina. Between snacks and the large screen, the viewers regularly held their breath as they eagerly followed the team into extra time. Shortly after Mario Götze scored the decisive goal, it was finally done. After 24 years, the German national team had won the World Cup again and created an unparalleled euphoria in the land. A young German national team enthused with its creative, offensive soccer was the only team to find that perfect blend of individual skills and teamwork.
Mario Götze decides the 2014 World Cup final.© picture-alliance.com/dpa
Their incomparable style was impressive! The players’ concentration, their confident but never arrogant statements, and the team’s joy and simultaneous humility were exemplary.
Children proudly wear jerseys with the names Müller, Neuer, and those of other World Cup stars. Soccer clubs are barely able to withstand the onslaught of enthusiastic young players who want to emulate their famous role models.
And as cheering fans of this team, we were right in the thick of it. The ease with which Lahm and company raised the trophy to the night sky—these are unforgettable moments captured by countless photos. But what we cannot see in those photos is the arduous and difficult path German soccer has been on for more than a decade in order to reach this success.
Once the emotions gradually subsided after the World Cup triumph and the tournament underwent a more sober analysis, one point became distinctly obvious. While looking at the team makeup of the German World Cup squad, it became apparent that World Cup record holder, Miroslav Klose, is quite unique in his career: He is the only one who was not trained at a youth performance center. Also of note: The players trained at a number of very different youth performance centers at Germany’s soccer clubs–different from the previous model, Spain, where training is concentrated in just a few clubs like FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atlético Bilbao, and San Sebastian.
A total of 60 clubs participated in the development of the world champions, including 27 licensed clubs and 33 amateur organizations.
The world cup is the crowning glory of Germany’s unparalleled talent development over the past decade. Bundesliga clubs count on their young talent. The young players are the winners and at the same time profit from the positive changes in German soccer. It was different just 15 years ago. Hardly anyone raved about the new generation of German soccer talent. In most professional teams, it was revolutionary to have two 19-year-olds on the squad on game day. Even if there were some changes over time, the development of youth players became a steady trend. More and more clubs bank on their own talent, who are becoming increasingly younger and very well trained.
The combination of athletic and academic training as well as full educational, medical, and psychological support for young German players has become a model for international soccer.
The soccer world is amazed by the virtually inexhaustible reserve of talented young players in Germany. Training “made in Germany” is once again a quality guarantee.
In recent years, coaches, fathers, mothers, friends, children, and adolescents, as well as acquaintances that are sports enthusiasts have been asking lots of questions on this topic. How does a Bundesliga club’s youth performance center operate? How did this turnabout, this extensive rethinking in German clubs with respect to youth players, happen?
Why do many players who appear to be less talented than others make it in pro soccer? Under which conditions do the talents train? Why are many players unable to make the leap to pro soccer? What are clubs doing differently today from 10 years ago? What does a top player do to play at the highest level long term? These are just a few questions we will try to answer in this book.
We want to show a timeline of the changes that have taken place since 2000 and how the youth performance centers have organically evolved since that time. How do the academies of Bundesliga clubs like Borussia Dortmund, Hertha BSC, VfB Stuttgart, and VfL Wolfsburg prepare their talent for pro soccer? We will talk about the difficult balancing act during the transition period after the end of U19, as well as take a look at the different paths of some star players. Marco Reus, Shkodran Mustafi, Maximilian Arnold, Manuel Neuer, and Sebastian Rode provide an insight into their inner life and their different career progressions. Moreover, some of them will demonstrate through select training units how to work every day on strengths and weaknesses in order to rise to the top.
Because next to fundamental skills, will, and luck, it also requires day-to-day work to make the break to the top. Pro soccer would not be possible without amateur soccer; therefore we will finally take a look at it. Individual topics will be presented with input from recognized German soccer experts.
Our goal was to give the reader a better understanding of the transition in German soccer by providing answers.
When we say we, we refer to all the people whose cooperation made this book possible. Many thanks for your support and your uncomplicated nature, safe in the knowledge that the everyday business of soccer is fast-paced and difficult. In the course of countless interesting conversations, many interesting perspectives emerged, which we will share with the reader in the following chapters. We hope all of you will enjoy this book!
PART 1: LOOKING BACK
1 THE DANCING REFRIGERATORS[1]– FROM THE DEPRESSION OF THE TURN OF THE MILLENIUM TO THE FOURTH TITLE
In 2000, German soccer was in ruins. A generation that supposedly would be invincible for years to come presented as too old—in fact, the term “Stone Age soccer” came to mind. The proud German soccer nation was deeply depressed. Did not the German national team just founder 0-3 with “grandpa style”[2] against a Portuguese B-team? Two years prior, the German national team already rumbled into the 1998 World Cup quarter-finals not with inspired soccer, but rather with the internationally much feared “German virtues.” But then it was over. The team lost to Croatia 0-3. Fitness and fight were no longer enough. But other nations played inspiring soccer.
There was no trace of young, exciting soccer players inspiring joy of play and enthusiasm with their speed and readiness for action.
And all this at a most inconvenient time! The 2006 World Cup at home was fast approaching, and the soccer powerhouse Germany fell into pieces. The contrast between pretense and reality could not have been greater. Germany, which held a permanent claim to leadership in world soccer since 1954, appeared to have been relegated to Stone Age soccer.
Devastated — the German team at the 2000 European Championship after losing 0-3 to a Portuguese B-team© picture-alliance.com/dpa
Germany’s self-image in soccer changed. Instead of being “unbeatable for years to come,” German soccer was quickly struck by a hard reality.[3] Winning while also playing attractive soccer—that’s what others did. France (world champions 1998, European champions 2000), the Netherlands, and especially Spain were vanguards of youth development. Looking beyond one’s borders was beneficial. German soccer profited greatly from the experience and skills of the acquired knowledge regarding approach, strategy, and training and put together a talent support program without equal. Inspiration was also gained from other sports such as ice hockey and team handball.
In 1998, the state associations already received 2 million DM from the DFB to ramp up development of 11- to 12-year-olds.[4] In addition, the DFB built 120 support centers all over Germany for 3.2 billion DM for additional support for 13- to 17-year-old talent.[5] Prior to that it had been left to the individual state associations and clubs to engage in talent development as they saw fit. At that time, there was no concept for an integrated approach.[6]
1.1 THE FIRST STEP–AN EXTENSIVE NETWORK OF DFB CENTERS
The provisional talent program remained in this form until 2001. After the disastrous 2000 European Championship, two decisive advances in talent development in Germany took place with the mandatory institution of performance centers for Bundesliga clubs in 2001, as well as the construction of 366 base camps.[7] The DFB base camps form a close-meshed, comprehensive network all over Germany, allowing 1,000 base camp coaches to sight nearly every talent and invite them to the base camp. Base camp training begins at the so-called golden age of learning, age 11. A total of 14,000 players get the opportunity once a week to work on their weaknesses and develop their strengths during an additional training session.[8] For most of the talent, the base camps are thereby the first step in their soccer development. At the same time, the base camps are catch basins for all talent in the event they withdraw from a performance center.
Map of Germany showing DFB base camps
The talent with the presumably best prospects switch from the base camp to a performance center. All players who are not yet playing at a performance center by the end of the base camp age limit of age 14 receive additional support from the state association to enable the switch to a youth academy at a later date.[9] Stefan Kießling, Dennis Aogo, Mario Gómez, Toni Kroos, and André Schürrle are just a few of the players who made the switch from a base camp to a performance center. Dennis Aogo, Mario Gómez, and Stefan Kießling even did so relatively late.[10]
DFB talent development program
Bambini (U7)[11]
MOVEMENT – JOY
Holistic support of children through movement tasks.
Playful learning about the flying, bouncing, and rolling the ball.
A variety of ideas and joy of playing through variations of small ball games.
Joy of playing (soccer).
Learning simple basic rules of playing with and against each other.
U8/U9[12]
Small groups, small fields, lots of activities.
Training is playing with lots of touches for everyone.
Promote playing with both feet, creativity, and joy of playing.
Promote learning through the demonstrate–imitate method.
Show patience; no time—performance pressure.
Set an example for the children at all times.
U10/U11[13]
Promote individual strengths.
Technical training is primarily playing.
Strive for lots of touches and playing activity for everyone.
Emphasize accurate progressions; correct when necessary.
Teach tactical basic ABCs.
Demonstrate fairness, dependability, and politeness.
© picture-alliance.com/dpa
U12/U13[14]
Improve all basic techniques step-by-step and in detail.
Combine practicing and playing with emphasis on both.
Enforce the use of both feet.
Train fitness primarily through games.
Begin individual training.
Use intensive communication, actively involving players.
U14/U15[15]
Be aware of differences in individual development.
Individual support: strengthen strengths, weaken weaknesses.
Build and strengthen self-initiative and self-motivation.
Creativity is more important than rigid tactical processes.
No premature position specialization.
Build hierarchies; create responsibilities.
U16/U17 and U18/U19[16]
Provide intensive training processes and active breaks.
Train technical–tactical details in theory and practice.
Make training more complex, but consider individuality.
Actively involve players; facilitate participation in decision making.
Build a hierarchical structure within the team.
Coordinate athletic and academic demands.
1.2 TALENT DEVELOPMENT AT YOUTH PERFORMANCE CENTERS
The youth performance centers of Bundesliga clubs start the development of young talent at different age groups. Some already begin at the end of U9, but no German academy has a team later than U12. In the youth performance centers, the younger players (U13 and U15) train four to six times a week; the older players (U17 and U19) train six to eight times a week.[17] The skills offensive continues with the coaches. Of the 650 coaches total, 271 coach full time. Of these, far more than 50 % hold at least a national B license.[18] Matthias Sammer, former DFB athletic director, says, “More than ever, the head coach is the key to and the measure of all things. He takes personal responsibility for the management of individual and team elite support.”
Tough rivalry already exists in youth soccer© picture-alliance.com/dpa
With the introduction of the U19 Bundesliga during the 2003/2004 season, the U17 Junior Bundesliga in 2007/2008, and the U15 Junior regional league, which competed for the first time in all regions of Germany in 2010-2011, the preconditions were created for performance comparisons between youth performance centers organized as leagues. This way the performance center talent must prove themselves week after week and advance their skills in competition.
1.3 STAR WARS–ENSURING QUALITY AT YOUTH PERFORMANCE CENTERS
Furthermore, the performance centers are subject to certification by the German Soccer Association (DFB) and German Soccer League (DFL). In doing so, the eight categories administrative policy and strategy; organization; basic product: soccer training, support, internal marketing, and personnel management; external contacts and recruitment; infrastructure; and, finally, effectiveness are reviewed.[19] Regular review by the DFB and DFL does not only ensure quality but also regular improvement of Germany’s youth performance centers since the standards for youth performance centers in Germany are continuously rising.[20] The company Footpass issues certifications and up to three stars that also carry with them a financial reward so that effective youth development is profitable, especially for less financially well-to-do clubs.
For performance centers, collaborating with schools is essential for optimal talent development. All-day school greatly limits afternoon practice time. The elite soccer academies instituted by the DFB since 2007 make it possible to also have training units in the mornings as well as providing students who miss school due to select training courses flexible opportunities to make up missed work.[21]
1.4 REFORMATION 2.0
But after the shipwreck around the turn of the millennium, it took the reformer Jürgen Klinsmann to break open the inflexible methods of operation within the Bundesliga and raise awareness for new issues. For instance, in Germany in 2008, ball contact times (one of the indicators of a fast game) were still at an average 1.9 seconds. In England’s Premier League, where absolute star players have been romping for many years, the ball contact time of top teams was at 1 second.[22]
The German national team was already able to reach that number by the 2010 World Cup.[23] Even with regard to modern performance diagnostics, lobbying was still required in 2009 when many other top international coaches had already incorporated this component into their mode of operation.[24]
Initially sneered at, now frequently copied. The American physical team creates new impulses, here with an exercise using elastic bands.© picture-alliance.com/dpa
1.5 VISIBLE PROGRESS
For the Bundesliga, the effects are obvious. While 92 % of all players used during the 2000/2001 season were still older than age 21, that number dropped to 84 % during the 2009/2010 season.[25] Overall, more than 50 % of current Bundesliga players were trained at a performance center.[26] On average, that is 15 players per club.[27] Since the 2001/2002 season, the average age has also gone down.
During the 2010/2011 season, the average age in the Bundesliga was 25.77, and, thus, was barely below the 2001/2002 average age.[28] In 2010, the German squad’s average age of 25 in South Africa was already six years below the average age of the German squad at the European Championship in 2000. The average age of the world champions of Brazil 2014 was 25.8, which makes them the fourth youngest team in German World Cup history.[29] Borussia Dortmund’s team in 2012, when they won the German Championship, was the youngest ever.[30] In parallel to the decrease in average age, the number of German players in the 1st and 2nd Bundesliga has gone up. In the DFL brochure 10 Years of Performance Centers: Talent Development in German Soccer, the head of DFL management, Christian Seifert, announced, “In today’s Bundesliga 57 %, and in the 2nd Bundesliga even 71 % of all players are German again.”[31]
Schalke’s former sports director Horst Heldt points to a positive side effect: “When we groom the players ourselves, we facilitate a close identification with the club and are able to influence their training.”[32] Next to a sense of allegiance to the club itself, homegrown players like Thomas Müller, Julian Draxler, and Kevin Großkreutz also provide an enormous identifying factor for the fans who perceive “their” players as being more authentic than other, possibly very expensive, foreign star players for whom the own club may be only a way station to the next club.
Thomas Müller, Julian Draxler, and Kevin Großkreutz© picture-alliance.com/dpa
1.6 GERMAN IN-HOUSE PRODUCTION: THE LOCAL PLAYER
The local player rule, which became mandatory in the Bundesliga with the 2006/2007 season, supports this development. Starting with the 2008/2009 season, every club must have eight locally trained players under contract.[33] A local player is a player who has trained at least three consecutive years between the ages of 15 and 21 in his own or a German club.[34] An interesting fact: Of the 23 world champions in Brazil, 21 trained at least three years or more at a German youth performance center and thereby qualify as local players.
Juvenescence and most likely a simultaneous increase in quality can most certainly also be predicted in the lower leagues. The multitude of talented, well-trained players that make it to base camp but not much beyond do not only raise the quality of play in all other leagues in which the players will subsequently become active, but also simultaneously lower their average age.
Thus, talent development in Germany does not only create a pool of young talent at the top but also across the sport, which almost certainly will result in higher quality soccer in all leagues.
1.7 TO THE TOP OF THE WORLD
In the space of 10 years, the development of youth players in Germany has changed fundamentally. Since the 2001/2002 season, on average, more than 65 million Euros per year are invested in youth performance centers. With the development of professional structures in youth soccer, regular certification by the DFL, a close-meshed talent support network, as well as DFB base camps, performance centers, and ensuring a comprehensive training process through cooperation between schools and clubs, the foundation was laid for a year-by-year renewable generation of well-trained talent that last summer crowned itself world champion.
Bastian Schweinsteiger, Marco Reus, Philipp Lahm, Thomas Müller, Mesut Özil, Sami Khedira, Manuel Neuer, Mario Götze, Toni Kroos—by now the list of notable star players who came from a youth performance center has become quite long and at the same time forms the core of today’s national team. Matthias Sammer, DFB performance director from 2006 to 2012, continually emphasized that the German Soccer Association must orient itself to the world elite.[35] In 2009, the DFB’s youth development work was recognized with the UEFA’s Maurice Burlaz Trophy as Europe’s best. The U21, U19, and U17 European Championship titles of the national teams were instrumental here.[36]
The next generation is ready! Germany’s U19 win the European Championship.© picture-alliance.com/dpa
Thus, the world championship title is a logical conclusion to the conceptual and structural changes and a product of the investments of the past decade. The entire world now looks to us.
TIMELINE 1998-2014
Markers:
1998
World Cup in France; 0-3 in quarter-finals against Croatia
1999
Preliminary talent development program
2000
German national team debacle at the European Championship in the Netherlands and Belgium
2001
Construction of DFB base camps and the beginning of an extensive talent development network
2001/2002
Youth performance centers as a stipulation in the licensing process (initially for the 1st Bundesliga)
2002
Expanded talent development program; 2nd Bundesliga performance centers
2004
Again group-stage knock-out at the European Championship
2006
World Cup at home; third place finish
