Over the past two seasons, the Maccabi Tel Aviv “Avi Cohen” Youth Academy made significant changes and progress under Performance Director Patrick van Leeuwen who brought his unique philosophy to the forefront. Following the last couple of season’s success and just ahead of the start of the 2018/19 season, van Leeuwen looked at how the Academy has continued to evolve and develop: “We are very happy with the progress made over the past two seasons. The Academy staff has worked very hard for us to be in the position that we are in today. We will continue on the same path this coming season.”

Moving Forward:
The Youth Academy teams will continue to develop the same way that they have over the past season and the staff will continue to achieve this by implementing an intensive training program. In addition, a new element that will be focussed on this season is personal development. Along with the team planning and structure, there will also be a strong emphasis put on individual development where a number of players will work on their own personal progress in addition to the development of the team itself. Van Leeuwen added: “The program will not only take place on the pitch but off of it as well with the goal of developing the player within the world of football. They will work on various specific programs that will not include training with a ball.”

Another positive effect from the past season that will impact the future is the number of loaned players moving to one team. Van Leeuwen talked about the continuing progress of the players: “We are always looking for the right path to develop the players. Not everyone is ready to make the jump form the Youth Team to the First Team and we have to find the right way to prepare the players. Some of the players will move to Beitar Tel Aviv/Ramle in the hope that they will receive significant minutes in the realm of a professional team that is made up of adult age footballers.”

Staff:
A number of changes were made in the Academy staff. After the personal development of some of the coaches, they received opportunities at other clubs. The professional staff always looks to make sure to find appropriate replacements to continue the growth of the coaching staff.

Bulgaria Training Camp:
The Under-19 and Under-17 teams have already begun training for the upcoming season and will also head to Bulgaria for their preseason training camp where they will play friendlies against local academy teams including: CSKA Sofia, Lokomotiv Sofia, PFC Septemvri Sofia, Slavia Sofia and FC Germanea Sapareva Banya. The other Academy teams will begin to train gradually over the month and by mid-August all of the sides will be participating in their training program for the 2018/19 campaign.

New programs for the upcoming season:

  • Coach development – The goal is to continuously promote and improve the Academy’s coaches and this will be done by inviting foreign experts who will give special lectures to the staff. In addition, van Leeuwen discussed ways to further develop Israeli coaches and football in general: “There is the thought of helping football development by organizing a congress of coaches who work in youth football. The congress will be able to deal with practical and theoretical development by sharing information and working together.”
  • International Tournament – The Academy will continue the tradition started last year with an International Youth Tournament. The goal is to organize a tournament with quality International youth teams. On the local level, this will give other teams in Israel the opportunity to participate in the tournament and gain significant experience. For the younger age groups, there will be an attempt to organize tournaments as well in order to gain experience in a different type of framework.
  • Increasing football time – This year, the football hours for the Academy teams will significantly increase. The amount of training sessions will increase from the younger ages all the way to the Club’s Under-19 team.

Patrick van Leeuwen concluded: “We are looking forward to the start of the season for all of the Academy teams. We are welcoming both the veterans along with the new players who have joined the Academy to the Maccabi family and hope that we will help them improve and become even better players. What was in the past will stay in the past and we will ensure that we will be stronger as we look ahead to the continuing development of the Youth Academy.”