Since the start of 2020, I have been researching the beginnings of current young football stars. Here are some of the findings.
TALENT
Let’s put things straight. If you are to become a world-class footballer, your talent needs to be obvious from day one.
The first coach of Eduardo Camavinga says he has never seen another player like him and it is some claim from someone who has worked with youngsters for nearly half a century. Meanwhile, four-year-old Kai Havertz was reportedly so good with a football at his feet that his local club made an exception by allowing him to join in training sessions a year ahead of when it was allowed for anybody else. As another striking example, Ansu Fati left everybody astonished when turning up on the football pitch for the first time in the Andalusian town of Herrera.
Nothing other than talent represents the all important first step.
PASSION
As perhaps everybody knows, talent is not enough though. It is one thing being talented. Another is being talented AND have a passion.
According to the Birmingham City Academy coaches, Jude Bellingham always stood out for passion first and quality second. Mason Greenwood would arrive first at every training session, honing his skills before practice began. Mason Mount‘s father claims he could probably count on one hand all sessions his son missed as a child. He did not even bother going to school parties. All he ever wanted to do was go training.
Passion will get you one step further.
MOTOR SKILLS
Then, you need to add motor skills – often seen as the base of the player development pyramid – into the mix.
Nine-year-old Eduardo Camavinga was quick and agile. Ferran Torres was also quick. Jude Bellingham was very agile. Mason Greenwood‘s pace was such he apparently broke the Great Britain 100m sprint race record at under-13 level.
In fact, some current footballers thrived at other sports, too. Both Lautaro Martínez and Giovanni Reyna played competitive basketball even in their teenage years, before choosing football as their number one sport.
FOCUS
Time for perhaps less obvious factors.
Eduardo Camavinga has also been remembered as a serious kid, always on time for training. Ferran Torres was humble and introverted. Mason Mount, again, just wanted to train.
It may be strongly linked to passion, but you need to be focused.
CONFIDENCE
Another thing is being naturally confident.
Rayan Cherki would frequently produce rabonas even at youth level. Ferran Torres has been described as a bit cheeky. The remarkable numbers of footballing talent emerging from South London could be attributed, among many other factors, to the confidence of the players raised in this particular area of the world.
QUICK LEARNERS
The best are not only passionate, focused and confident. They also tend to learn quickly.
They see a problem as a challenge rather than a negative, as former head of coaching at the Swansea City Academy put it. Meanwhile, as soon as you showed Mason Greenwood anything new, he would just do it straight away.
SIBLINGS
Let’s move into even less obvious aspects, however.
It remains striking just how many of the elite sportsmen tend to have a lot and, in particular, older siblings.
Eduardo Camavinga is the third of his parents’ six children while Rayan Cherki is the third of five. Lautaro Martínez has both an older, who is also a footballer and a younger brother, who plays basketball. Ferran Torres is the middle one of three children in his family, too. His older sister would often give him a lift to the Valencia CF training base when he was not yet allowed to drive. Kai Havertz is the youngest of three children in his family. He lived with his older brother, who was studying in Cologne at the time, upon leaving his maternal town to join Bayer Leverkusen as a teenager. Six-year-old Ansu Fati turned up at his first training session alongside his older brother. Mason Mount has an older sister who he would use as a target when kicking a ball all around the house. Giovanni Reyna claims it was his older brother rather than any of his parents, who both represented their country at international level, who taught him everything. Finally, Reece and Lauren James also have an older brother.
ADVERSITY
It also seems remarkable how many of the best footballers had to come through some bad experiences.
The family of Angola-born Eduardo Camavinga once lost everything when their house was destroyed by a fire. Ansu Fati, who moved over to Europe from Guinea-Bissau at the age of six, was barefoot and wore swimming trunks during his first training session. Jamal Musiala also moved to another country at a young age while Marcus and Khéphren Thurams saw their parents divorce. Meanwhile, Lautaro Martínez was homesick when he first left his home. Still, that was all nothing compared with the traumatic experience of nine-year-old Giovanni Reyna whose older brother Jack, the one who taught him everything, died from brain cancer at the age of 13.
Dealing with adversity often breeds determination which is, of course, another common theme of the two biggest talent ponds in world football: Greater Paris and South London. Past experiences, along with environment, matter.
SUPPORT
Things are perhaps less unambiguous when it comes to support provided to the stars of the future. Some got a lot of it. Others less. Some experienced at least some pressure to make it. Others none whatsoever.
The commitment of Mason Mount‘s parents was incredible, driving his son from Portsmouth to West London four times a week for a number of years. Eduardo Camavinga was registered at his first club by his mum who, as it often starts, got tired of her son breaking everything in the house while playing football. On the other hand, some time later upon the family’s house getting totally destructed by a fire, Eduardo’s father reportedly told his son he was the hope of the family. Meanwhile, Reece and Lauren James’ father was an unfulfilled ex-footballer and coach, who was focused on discipline before anything else.
Others provided advice rather than pressure. Erling Haaland remained at his boyhood club until the age of 16. It was only then when his father, former Norway international Alf-Inge, demanded that his son made a move to Molde. Another ex-footballer, Claudio Reyna, insists he did nothing to hone Giovanni‘s footballing ability. He played with his brother in the garden, he recalls. Lilian Thuram went one step further claiming he did not want any of his sons to become footballers, even initially taking them to judo and fencing sessions instead!
The amount of support provided by coaches also tends to differ.
According to George Lappas, one unnamed current international footballer was once on the verge of being excluded from his club. His coaches gave him one last chance. Meanwhile, Birmingham City Academy coaches admit they would challenge Jude Bellingham by providing him with a lot of support on some occasions and no support other times.
COACHING
As for the quality of coaching, there are different ways, too.
The first coach of Rayan Cherki believes the kid was already so good at the age of six, there was nothing he could teach him. Mason Greenwood was given little challenges rather than huge pieces of advice. Nigel James, however, was keen to teach his children the standards they should aspire to, providing sessions for them in the family back garden.
A more open way of coaching, emphasising creativity over obedience, is also credited to have influenced the success of both South London and Paris footballers. Jonathan Ikoné even recalls how Wilfried Mbappé, his ex-coach and father of Kylian, would take him off the pitch when he did NOT attempt a one-v-one in a match!
RELATIVE AGE EFFECT
As for RAE, my conclusions are actually very simple. If you are very talented from an early age, it does not matter what month you were born in.
In fact, Eduardo Camavinga and Giovanni Reyna were both born in November whereas Ansu Fati was born on 31 October. Meanwhile, Jude Bellingham was born at the end of June, i.e. the 10th month of the English school year.
What is more, the likes of Erling Haaland, Kai Havertz and Bellingham were small, if not very small, physically until the age of about 14-15. That never stopped them from playing in older age groups as children, though.
SCOUTING
Finally, you may be wondering, where do the most talented young footballers of the new generation come from? Small towns? Or big cities?
You are unlikely to be surprised that my research has so far shown that they could be born anywhere. But increasingly in towns rather than cities.
Eduardo Camavinga was raised in Fougères, a town of around 20,000 inhabitants in northwestern France. Erling Haaland grew up in Bryne, an even smaller town in south-west of Norway. Kai Havertz is from Alsdorf, 15 kilometres north from the city of Aachen. Ansu Fati came to the attention of first Sevilla and then both Barcelona and Real Madrid scouts when playing football in the provincial town of Herrera. Bradford-born Mason Greenwood showed his remarkable talent in the Manchester United development centre in Halifax. Jamal Musiala also started locally, at TSV Lehnerz. Ferran Torres comes from a town very close to Valencia. Jude Bellingham is from one 12 miles west of Birmingham.
There are exceptions, of course. Lyon-born Rayan Cherki has been at his current club since the age of seven. Mason Mount‘s Portsmouth is a city. And then both the suburbs of Paris and South London are parts of two of the biggest metropolis around the globe, after all.
In the picture (found here): nine-year-old Eduardo Camavinga honing his heading skills
BREAKTHROUGH 