Coaches from Italian Serie A side Sampdoria have hailed Ugandan soccer talent, saying that only methodology to success needs emphasis. The three coaches led by Marco Branco and Morosine Alberto are in Uganda for a two-week camp on Excellent Sports Agency’s invitation. While seeing off over 50 kids (U15) on Friday at Legends rugby grounds, Alberto emphasized that it is not always the skills sought, also applicability. “In football we mostly look at the mind; how open minded is a player and how he can take a quick decision. A player must know when to apply skill or use space to pass, shoot, assist among other basics.
I am happy that the kids are skilled and ask many questions to learn. That is more exciting to us as coaches,” noted Alberto, who though believes that it would not be easy to apply the methodology in a short time at hand. “We have spotted some players with potential that grow their career if well nurtured,” he added. After the first phase, the coaches will handle the U17-20 category starting Monday at StarTimes stadium, Lugogo with each participant paying $100. These will be specifically trials and a few excellent players will be spotted for teams in Europe where the coaches are connected, including Genoa, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Sampdoria. The selected players are expected to travel to the respective clubs between May 30 and August 31 this year, according to Apollo Kalanzi, the Excellent Sports Agency Public relations officer (PRO). Apollo also told this website that four players (U15) will be selected from the first phase and travel to Sampdoria in Italy for a specific period of up-to-the-minute training.