JAFC nurturing Namibia’s talent

Last year, Julinho Athletic Football Club (JAFC) participated successfully in the Gothia Cup in Gothenburg, Sweden, and the Dana Cup in Denmark. The club sent their U/14 boys to these international tournaments to challenge them against the best players globally.

Coach Ricky Averia stated that the tournaments are considered among the biggest youth events, drawing more than a thousand participants over a week.

The tournament is very culturally oriented, where you get to meet a lot of teams from around the world and interact with them. It was a great experience for the boys,

– he said.

The club conducted thorough research on the tournaments they aimed to expose their players too and submitted applications early.

This is all done at least a year in advance, so it gives us, parents, an opportunity to budget for these tournaments. So, it’s just a matter of application and acceptance. If you have a formal club structure, they will accept,

– he noted.

For JAFC, this forms part of their development process by exposing the kids to various football cultures and environments beyond Namibia.

It helps our players to see what’s out there, the different types of cultures, the football cultures, the competitions. It helps them broaden their horizon and their way of thinking, in terms of the game,

– he said.

He added that,

These tournaments teach the players life skills because these life skills cannot be taught on the training ground. But on these tours, they learn more about how to travel. Some of them have never travelled alone outside Namibia. For example, they know what a passport is, what a reception desk is, what hotel rooms look like, and even the public transport systems around Europe or outside of Namibia. They start to learn how to do these things during these tours. So, it’s not only beneficial football-wise, but also on a personal level, where they gain life skills.

In both tournaments, they reached round 16, carrying themselves well despite tough competition.

It really encouraged them to come back home and work harder and improve themselves. Not just on the training ground, but also to do individual work to improve themselves. So yes, it’s a motivational tool for them when they come back as well, to train and work harder, because they realise that it’s not as easy as they think it is out there,

– he emphasized.

Averia said that European countries take grassroots-level development seriously and place a lot of emphasis on it.

Whereas here in Namibia, we try to do what we can, not much is being done by our federation in terms of development,

There’s always room for improvement. Our main thing is to stick to our principles and philosophy of play, no matter the circumstances. We do not allow results to dictate how we play. We believe in our philosophy and methodology of play, which will give our players the best opportunity to become intelligent players,

– he concluded.
Strauss Lunyangwe

Caption
Photo 1: Flag high… JAFC represents Namibia internationally.
Photo 2: On the ball… JAFC recently reached the round of 16 in the Gothia Cup.
Photo 3: Camaraderie… JAFC posing with their counterparts.
Photos: Contributed