Tobin Wary Of Future

Hello once again. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it in the past, but I’m currently studying my post grad in journalism, and since there’s not much happening on the Socceroos front, here’s an article I wrote recently after I had the chance to interview former Socceroo captain Alex Tobin (who just happened to play for my local club). Enjoy, opinions on a post card please!

Australian football needs to address its youth development policy if it is to compete with international rivals, says former Socceroos great Alex Tobin.

While the three seasons of the A-League has produced its sprinkle of young stars, Tobin laments the lack of structured coaching at the grassroots level, and fears for the sport’s future.

Tobin, currently the head of Central Coast Mariners’ youth development, says: “Your average parent for the under sixes doesn’t come from a soccer background, but one of them will be the coach. Since they themselves don’t have too much knowledge on the game, the early coaching that the kids receive will not be good. In Europe, the dads would have all played football themselves so they will pass on some basic techniques. We have a lot of kids coming through the system who aren’t being coached particularly well.”

Tobin stresses that instead of looking for individual wonderkids, emphasis should be placed on improving the talent pool as a whole.

“There’s a lot made of the nine year old superstar who can do everything, and in my experience that almost never happens. They say Maradona can juggle a ball when he was eight years old, well I can show you 150 kids who can juggle the ball the way he did, but that’s not to say that they’re all going to be Maradona’s.”

“I want everyone to have good coaching, but I’m more interested in making the bottom of the pyramid much bigger and having everybody coached well rather than just find the few (young superstars) and concentrate on them.

While the famed Clairfontaine Academy of Paris is the ultimate model for youth development, Tobin believes that we need not look too far from home for advice. “I went to Japan a week ago and it’s scary how much they emphasis they put on coach education. Even the youngest coaches are qualified and know what they’re doing, it’s scary.”

However, Tobin is inspired by the new youth league which the A-League has implemented prior to the start of this season, and the opportunity it would give Australian youngsters.

“The coaches were all screaming for it. We’re going to have another eighty or so players having a chance to step up to the A-League.”

Tobin argues that the most important part of a player’s life was the period where they must seriously consider turning professional, and this new youth team policy will be of great assistance.

“It’s a long path, but now that there’s a youth league, I think that it’s more likelihood that youth players, around the tender 17-19 year old stage, will at least be able to go through the A-League youth system.”

“Historically, young players try to go overseas (for trials with foreign clubs) as early as possible, but the reality of it is that 99 percent of the time they come back unsuccessful. Hopefully this system will get them to stay here and play here instead of being one of those Australians who are scratching a living playing fourth division football in England.”