ASTA official: ‘We decided to send our teenagers to Spain to develop them’

“When I took my son to Marcet Football Academy, I saw their training process. After seeing the positive result, we consulted with the management and decided to send the children to Spain for their development,” Veli Bunyadov, an official of Azerbaijan Sport Talents Academy (ASTA), told a press conference organized jointly with Marcet Football Academy of Spain, Report informs.

He said that Marcet's coaches, who are currently in Baku, will look at the preparations of selected youth football players in the coming days, and will invite some of them to Spain: “Adnan Ahmadzadeh, the businessman who owns our academy, supported this project. He immediately accepted our offer. We talked with Marcet and signed a contract.”

Bunyadov believes that teenagers who will go to Spain will not have language problems there: “They also have a Spanish language course at their Academy. They teach the students the local language. Nevertheless, we will hire a teacher for the children in July-August so that they learn at least 20-30 percent of Spanish and be ready when they go there. Education will begin on September 5.”

The ASTA official added that the academy will create all conditions for the children to come to Azerbaijan twice a year: "There is a two-week break during the New Year holiday, and at the same time, school ends in June and there will be days off. At those times, the children will come here and return to Spain again. It will be organized by ASTA.”

ASTA Coordinator Rafael Yusifov said that they selected the teenagers born in 2008-2009 on the base of the national team. He emphasized that some clubs have shown their support for the project:

“We created an opportunity for everyone to participate in the selection and show their abilities. Children have contracts with clubs. Sabail, Neftchi and other clubs agreed to give 1-2 players. Zira and other clubs did not want to participate in the project.”

Director of Marcet Football Academy, Carlos Rivero Arias, gave information about the work done: “Our academy conducted selections in North Korea and took 20 people to Spain within a year. 3 of them later joined the North Korean national team. One of them, Han Kwang-song, was transferred to Juventus. We conduct individual training with each athlete at the academy. The most important thing in football is the result. We conduct individual lessons for each of them, we also create an opportunity to rest. In the academy, we mainly use technological resources. Coaches are provided with these resources. Representatives from 24 countries work in the academy. We don't have any problems because we speak the language of football. The athletes we train sign contracts with different clubs later on and advance their careers. Graduates of our academy perform in famous clubs today. For example, we have students in teams like River Plate and Atletico.”

The expert said that they will give their opinion about the Azerbaijani teenagers who will be selected this year after a certain period of time:

“It is very important that we are in Baku. The famous Spanish newspaper Marca published an article about our arrival here. Because a coach from Spain rarely comes to Azerbaijan. We cannot say anything about the selected children here. It should take a year or two to express a concrete opinion. We try to train not only football players but highly educated persons.”

Carlos Arias thinks that Azerbaijani football is developing year by year:

“There are good football players in Azerbaijan. There is a great development in the football field of this country. Our project can also help. Everyone thinks that players from Brazil and Africa are better. But we want to show that it is possible to train strong players from other countries. Azerbaijani football players are technically prepared. Anyone gets lazy when they don't see competition. We create a competitive environment in the academy, we demand a lot from children. Their discipline and work on themselves is important to us. If we cannot see these in a player, we will contact ASTA and try to replace him with another one.”

Felipe Ragel Marmol, selection coach of Marcet Football Academy, said that they work with each player both individually and collectively:

“We analyze athletes who come to our academy from other clubs, we train them twice a day. We first set macro and micro goals for each player. We conduct individual and collective training for young people. We record training and show the videos to players to analyze them together. When other clubs want to sign a contract with our students, we determine whether they are suitable for that club or not.”

The Spanish expert also expressed good thoughts about Baku:

“We were informed about this place before coming to Baku. Azerbaijan is a very beautiful country, Baku is a modern city. We haven't been able to visit many places yet. But we are very impressed about what we have seen so far.”