The next post will outline how vital childhood soccer is.
A football club will often invest much of its funding into its academy or youth team. You may wonder why they would invest so much money into footballers that don't, or maybe will never, feature in their first team. The answer is evident even so, these players will be the future of the football club, so training them up so that they are excellent enough is vital. It is true that investment in youth is frequent across all sports teams but football may well invest more than any other sport. The AC Milan owner will hope that the childhood teams they actually have will all fulfill their potential.
There are various childhood tournaments throughout the year, and these are exciting to enable players to improve. Another benefit of having competitive championships is that it gives footballers the chance to experience highly competitive soccer and play under real pressure. So many young players may not have experienced the sheer intensity of expert soccer, so it's a good way to ease them in. The best teams in Europe will all ease players into their first teams by letting them play in tournaments that are specifically for under 20 footballers and likewise other age teams too. If you were to look at any list of football leagues in Europe there would be the equivalent list for under 16 to under 21 players. These youth leagues are still pretty competitive and are played at a really high standard, but it allows footballers to establish physically without being entirely out played by the older players who are more experienced and more physically developed. The Guingamp owner will hope that the youth squad perform well in these youth tournaments, as it is a tremendous way to advertise young players to other teams whilst assisting to improve the footballers and maximise their appreciate through experience.
It's vital for a club to invest in their childhood not just because the players may play for the club itself, but because the footballers ended up being somewhat of a commodity. Whilst it's a rather odd term for footballers, the footballers might be traded to other teams in an effort to generate funds which the coach can then go with to purchase first club footballers. The most overpriced players are normally young players that show plenty of talent, so investing in youth clubs can, and normally does, indicate profits down the line. The best football clubs in the world all invest heavily into their youth clubs as they are completely aware of the value it can add to their team. The Southampton owner is knowledgeable about this fact and has helped to shape their youth system into one of the more admired ones.