10 Years Of German Academy Training.pdf

Foreword Dr Reinhard Rauball
1
Dear Readers
It was a few months ago that the German
national team, with its fresh,
attacking and technically brilliant style
of play thrilled football fans around
the globe at the 2010 FIFA World Cup
in South Africa. A young German team
with an average age under 25, consisting
exclusively of players from the Bundesliga,
took the world by surprise under
the guidance of national coach Joachim
Löw, with beauti ful and highly successful
attacking football – and sent fans and
pundits into raptures. Most lately this
superior performance by our national
team has shown that the measures decided
upon by the League Association and
the 36 professional clubs in Germany
ten years ago were correct. For all clubs,
the compulsory intro duction of academies
for young players in 2001 was the
building block which laid the way to a successful
future for German football. Today,
ten years later, we can enjoy the fruits of
the labour of those academies. And, of
this I feel sure, there will be plenty more
success to come.
Europe. The times in which we had to look
appreciatively to France, Spain or the
Netherlands have passed. The provisos
laid down in the licensing from the sporting,
medical and pedagogical fields, combined
with a unique philosophy for every
academy, guarantee an integral education
of young players – and ensure that these
youngsters also have a future outside of
football.
We can therefore thank those clubs,
not only that they have laid the infrastructural
foundations but also because
they emphasise the seriousness of player
education by the selection of qualified
management staff. The German Football
Association (DFB) should also be thanked
for its helpful co-operation in this area.
In particular, the DFB is performing outstanding
work with its centres concept
and have in Matthias Sammer a proven
expert in the field of working with young
players.
There have seldom been so many
technically and tactically gifted talents
playing in the Bundesliga. Bastian
Schwein steiger, Philipp Lahm and Manuel
Neuer already belong in the category of
world-class players. Young players such
as Thomas Müller, Mario Götze, André
Schürrle or the Bender twins, Sven and
Lars, to name but a few from the Bundesliga,
have the potential to reach a similar
level. Not to mention Mesut Özil and Sami
Khedira, currently causing a sensation
in Madrid. The German youth policy is
internationally recognised as the model
to be aspired to, and has even been most
recently cited by UEFA as the best in
Dr Reinhard Rauball
President of the League Association
“The German youth concept
has become internationally
recognised as the template
to be emulated.”