The players who participated at the Digicel Kick Start Clinics hosted in Trinidad and Tobago last week, made a positive impact on the Chelsea FC Foundation Coaches.
The Digicel Kick Start Clinics - now in their eighth year - will again see thousands of aspiring young footballers from across 14 countries in the Caribbean and Central America try out for their chance to travel to the Digicel Academy in Barbados and train under top coaches from Barclays Premier League side, Chelsea FC.
During the week-long Digicel Academy, the top 42 boys from across the region get the chance of a lifetime to receive intensive training under coaches from Barclays Premier League side, Chelsea Football Club.
Senior International Football Development Officer and Digicel Kick Start head coach, David Monk, said: “Over the years, Trinidad and Tobago has always fielded some of the strongest players at the Academy and, this year, we were just as impressed with the boys’ athleticism and knowledge of the game.
‘’Their tenacity, flair and technical ability was evident and, after the first day of training, we could easily identify at least nine players who were of the calibre required to attend the Academy. On the second day, picking the top three became an even harder task as more players started to join the list of footballers who we wanted to see at the Academy—an impressive feat.”
Monk was also impressed by the local coaches who were very knowledgeable about the latest coaching strategies and techniques-- an indication that the Digicel football development programme is working.
He continued: “We were also happy that the coaches were very engaged during the open forum segment of the coach education session where we shared the methods and strategies we use at Chelsea FC. They also got a chance to see these methods applied in a real-life setting while they observed how we interacted with the boys during the Clinics.”
Monk and his team will be heading to Bermuda as the next stop on the Clinics tour, where they will select the best three boys from that country to attend the Academy in Barbados.