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From 11 July to 5 August, the FDC "Vista" delegation was in Africa, where it implemented a unique scouting program to find young talented football players in Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast. The president of our club Tigran Mkrtchyan told about the results of this trip.
- Tigran Samvelovich, for almost a month, the specialists of FDC "Vista" worked in Africa. What were your main goals on this trip?
- It is important to note that this was the first full-fledged scouting program of our club. When we assembled the first team two and a half years ago, many foreign players came to us on the recommendation of our partners. A year ago, we had planned independent selection work in Africa, but the COVID intervened in the situation and the borders were closed. This has significantly slowed down our work. But now we have the opportunity to fly to Africa and our main goal was to find players who would be higher in their potential and class than the players we had before. Considering that we were satisfied with the level of our previous players, this time we expected to take such guys who would be able to join the training and playing process much faster and more effectively and would not have difficulties with adaptation when moving to our partners european clubs.
- What qualities of football players did you pay attention to in the first place during selection work?
- Considering that we flew to countries where the training of football players is far from at a high level, first of all we had to pay attention to the natural qualities of football players and to individual qualities – for example, the ability to work with the ball, or to physical indicators such as endurance, speed.
- How much did your expectations coincide with reality?
- Let's just say that there were no surprises for me personally. It's not the first time I've been to Africa, so everything was about as we imagined. African football players have a huge difference in terms of physical development compared, for example, with Russian guys. This is a natural advantage that should be used. And if African players receive high-quality football training, which their Russian peers receive, then they will have more chances to prove themselves at the highest level.
- During this period, you watched a lot of football players, saw the matches of more than seventy teams. What was the most difficult part of such work and how did you cope with these difficulties?
- Yes, a serious burden has been laid on our specialists. But, thank God, we all coped with the tasks set, professionally performed our work. The main difficulties were related to working conditions. The guys had almost no time to rest. After watching the matches, we had to immediately solve theoretical questions, analyze what we saw. But there is no other way in Africa! We have worked well for a whole month, now the specialists will have a week of rest, after that we will start the second part of the scouting program: preparing for the arrival of the players.
- You have visited three countries. What is the difference between the players of Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast?
- I would like to note that the most football hungry, so to speak, are Nigerians. They are the most diligent. This is due to the fact that, firstly, there are simply more football players there. Secondly, there are no major academies in Nigeria that have the opportunity to recruit the best of young players. There we saw a variety, there were football players, as they say, for every taste. Well, I will add that the Nigerians are distinguished by high endurance and power. But, unfortunately, they have problems with the mentality and understanding of football in general. In Ghana, the guys are more trained, they have the opportunity to get some kind of football training, so they play more competent and technical football. But, just, their main problem is endurance. This disadvantage prevents them from showing high intensity throughout the match. As everyone knows, we have signed a partnership agreement with the Cheetah Academy in Ghana, we will introduce special technologies into its work that will allow their specialists to develop football players in this direction. We will invite trainers for training. Those football players who are 12-14 years old will receive development programs and after a while we will see how effectively these programs will be implemented, what progress will be made in this aspect.
And as for Ivory Coast, the guys there also have a pretty good understanding of football. And we can especially note their ability to quickly adapt to new conditions. These qualities will allow them to develop effectively in European clubs.
- If you sum up the results of your work in general, how many talented football players have you noticed for yourself and what prospects do they have for being part of FDC "Vista" in the near future?
- I will not talk about specific figures now, because everything is not so clear on this issue. We selected players for different positions, we graded them into different categories, determined the priority. But, in general, we did an effective job, we are satisfied with the results that we received and the number of good players that we saw. Whether they will be here or not depends on many factors. This is also the negotiation process with their current academies, the opinion and desire of their parents, because here we are talking not only about football, but also about the children's studies in Russia. Well, we need to take into account the epidemiological situation in the world, which affects the ability of foreign citizens to come to other countries. If all these issues are resolved, then many guys will have the opportunity to be part of our team.
