Inside Bayer Leverkusen’s academy: Bundesliga champions wish to maintain their success and know youth is vital | Soccer Information

What’s there left for Bayer Leverkusen to realize? Placing that query to sporting director Simon Rolfes on a current go to to the Bundesliga champions, his reply is a shocking one. He talks not of extra glory however of growing the academy.

“We only have two players at the moment in our squad from the academy,” Rolfes tells Sky Sports activities. A type of is Florian Wirtz, who spent a lot of his growth at FC Koln. The opposite is back-up goalkeeper Niklas Lomb who’s now 31 years outdated.

“To have the same level we have now, but with five, six, seven, eight or nine players from the academy, would be fantastic,” provides Rolfes. “I think that would also give this club another boost in terms of development and our identity. It is a long-term project.”

He continues: “We are making big steps in the academy with a lot more national team players. Five years ago, there were maybe two or three, now it is almost 20. We are improving but we have to prove we are able to develop them. It is still a big challenge.”

Talking to chief government Fernando Carro, he expressed a lot the identical sentiment, underlining the truth that this isn’t a flight of fancy by Rolfes however a difficulty central to Leverkusen’s considering as they appear to construct on their shock title triumph.

“One very critical and important thing for us is to strengthen our academy,” says Carro. “We have to be more successful in getting academy players to the first team. But of course because of the higher level of our first team it is always more and more difficult.”

So, how do Leverkusen do it? The person tasked with delivering the change his bosses demand is Jefta Bresser, the academy director. The affable Dutchman is unconcerned. “I can deal with the pressure,” he tells Sky Sports activities. “If not, I am not the right man.”

Bresser solely arrived at Leverkusen in October, by which period the primary crew had been already on their astonishing run to glory. We’re talking after watching the U19 facet come from behind to win 4-3 late on. “I do not know what is wrong with this club,” he jokes.

However coming at it with contemporary eyes may permit him to have the solutions Leverkusen are in search of. Bresser factors to analysis that reveals Germany produces lower than one skilled per million inhabitants. In Portugal and the Netherlands, it’s almost 5.

“England is between two or three per million. That statistic can only mean two things. Either there is no talent in Germany or we are not developing them properly. And I think it must be the latter because football is also the number one sport in Germany.”

Bresser already has concepts. An apparent change was to enhance the choice course of. “We had close to 80 per cent of our boys from 12 to 19 born in the first six months.” This was a worrying bias primarily based on relative-age impact. They had been lacking the late builders.

Symbolically, Bresser moved the pinnacle coach of the U19s to a brand new position educating the coaches of the eight-to-15 age-groups. It despatched a message about what was essential. “Developing coaches helps to develop players. It all starts with quality coaching.”

Bresser’s personal background was as a technical coach at Fulham beneath Martin Jol after which beneath Andre Villas-Boas and Luciano Spalletti at Zenit Saint Petersburg. He has by no means overlooked the significance of one-on-one work in serving to to develop gamers.

“People forget how important this individual attention is, even at first-team level. It is not always about specific exercises. It is about that attention from the coach. That brings confidence, that brings good feeling and that contributes to performance.”

One other vital change deliberate is to dramatically enhance the variety of academy gamers. “I am looking at the models of Benfica and PSV. I would like to bring more kids into the academy at a younger age so there is a bigger foundation, a wider pyramid.”

Bresser’s ambition is to have “more or less double teams” for every age group. Not with a view to releasing extra of them however providing larger ensures as an alternative. “I do not like to deselect players too early.” From this season, the U11 boys crew obtain a promise.

“We promise them they can stay with us from fifth grade in school till the tenth grade in school. So they are not only in our schools for a good amount of years, but also in our football academy. I think that is a powerful thing. And that is what we are going to do.”

That safety helps the gamers. “There is still that vulnerable period for them when they start having Osgood-Schlatter disease and the growing pains and so on. But now they will not be so stressed that they have to leave the club every year. That is a big thing.”

He additionally hopes that it encourages the coaches to deal with particular person growth relatively than crew success. “The coaches need to feel comfortable and not feel the pressure of winning games. Sometimes we will lose games. It is no problem at all.”

Bresser explains: “Our individual approach combined with the fact that we commit longer to the kids’ development can be the difference for us, a more holistic approach. We cannot be thinking about always finding that bigger, stronger kid next door.”

There’ll nonetheless be the chance so as to add gifted gamers to the academy because the older age teams require extra gamers on all sides. “There is always room to bring in new kids. But they need to be top five. If they are just like the rest, they are not coming.”

Bresser desires to get the bottom proper first however that closing step from academy graduate to first-team soccer stays the largest leap. Carro is exploring choices, whether or not that may be a strategic relationship with a membership in Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria or elsewhere.

“We do not have what other clubs have, perhaps competitors with multi-club ownership have, where there is a second team,” explains Carro. “This is something that we have to look at. At the moment, we are analysing it and we will have to discuss the strategy.”

Bresser admits that the leap from academy to Champions League is “way too big” for many younger gamers. “In soccer, we are likely to deal with the exceptions. Florian Wirtz was prepared at 17 however he’s the exception. Many of the boys are prepared when they’re 21 or 22.

“To be honest, have to have some solutions. As mentioned, do we need a second team? Do we need partner clubs or assistant clubs? “We have now a really gifted group born in 2007. Which means in a single yr we want the answer for the following steps for these boys.”

But the message from Leverkusen, who are looking at a completely new training ground before the end of the decade, is that the search for those solutions is on. Finding a way to sustain that success is the next challenge and the academy is a way of doing that.

“Possibly it’s a dream however I completely need Leverkusen to be among the many prime three academies in Germany,” says Bresser. “I need Europe to talk about our academy.” Laborious to think about? So was the Bundesliga title. In Leverkusen, goals can come true.