Fleetwood Town International Football Academy (FTIFA) have been trekking around the world once again, with coaches finding their way to Australia to work with their programme developers in Sydney.
Both the Programme Manager, Michael Horsfall, and International Academy Coach, Danny Hastings, flew halfway across the works to help coach prospective footballer in their hometowns.
The aim of the trip was to identify talented young players and make them aware of the multiple different pathways that Fleetwood Town can offer.
Whilst out there, Michael and Dan had meetings with several different clubs to help gain an understanding of the game in Australia in terms of delivery and the pathways offered to the young players.
They met with both Professional Clubs and NPL clubs to share good practice and talk about how Fleetwood Town could support two-way pathways for players on the area.
Horsfall said on the visit: “Australia has a great talent pool full of aspiring young footballers. The opportunity to work with 14–18-year-olds in Sydney this week has given us to chance not only for the boys and girls to showcase their talent, but also for myself and Danny to showcase what Fleetwood can offer!
“There was huge interest in a few our programmes from the Pro Experience up to the Pathway to Pro, which starts in Dubai in the next few months. The chance for us to speak to technical directors of clubs across various levels of the youth game in Sydney will only strengthen our position when we look at realistic pathways for any players on the FTIFA programmes.
“Seeing the facilities and professionalism adopted by many of the clubs in the Sydney area has been invaluable to our future discussions with players and parents wanting to join our programs. There’s a real opportunity for Fleetwood Town to support NPL clubs and share information to improve operations on and off the field and we will explore these further over the next few months!”
FTIFA would like to thank their Australian partner, JBFC Au, which is headed up by James Boyle, who runs a seasonal programme under the FTIFA umbrella, which identifies players to progress into FTIFA programs in the UK and abroad.
The model is run as a FREE program which is unique in the country. His commitment to support players pathways and develop players in Sydney is wonderful and one which has benefited our Pro Experience program since we returned in June 21’.
FTIFA Australia will be releasing details on the next Talent ID camp shortly - thanks to everyone involved in and off the pitch – It was a huge success.