Carlos Santamarina is working with his team with a vision to create a football ecosystem in and around the steel city.
The highly experienced Spaniard, who has been part of Spanish giants Atletico’s youth coaching set up, has rivetted his attention on finding talent and developing them via Jamshedpur’s FC grassroots programme.
In short, he has embarked on a mission to put training methods prevalent in Atletico de Madrid. He has been involved in development and coaching kids in the under-12,13,14 and 15 age groups and is going all to make things happen in Jamshedpur.
But Carlos, who took charge as head of Jamshedpur FC (Tata Football Academy) youth development earlier this year, is aware that parents of these youngsters would have to pitch in too.
“The role of parents is most important for the development of children. We teach children more than football. We teach them about values, nutrition, healthy habits, discipline, hard work. But we only work with them between 6 and 9 hours a week. We need parents to continue our work. I recommend all parents to focus on nutrition and the well being of their kids. They can always approach us for suggestions,” Carlos told The Telegraph.
The highly experienced mentor is working through the JFC’s grassroots programme underway in eight city schools and giving technical support to 22 centres run by Tata Steel Rural Development Society.
On the JFC’s grassroots programme introduced about a year back, Carlos said: “We need to start working with kids as soon as possible. Currently we have about 650-plus kids working with 24 coaches who are training using he same method vis-à-vis TFA coaches. We call it Atletico de Madrid method.”
Carlos said that a number of changes had been introduced in the coaching module at the Tata cradle. “We’ve created four new teams (U9, 10, 12 and 14). All the teams will play similar football, based on the four moments of the game - attack, defence, attacking and defensive transitions. All the sessions have the same structure and the teams work the same technical and tactical concepts. This is a long process, but it’s the same method we have in Atletico de Madrid,” he explained.
According to Carlos, they were focusing on kids who were eight or nine 9 years old. He believes that in 10 years time, these players would understand perfectly what they would have to do at any given moment in the game.
Do local boys have the potential to become quality footballers? “Of course they have. I don't like to take names because my work is to try and ensure every player grows, each one to his own level. But we have players like Mobashir Rahman from Jamshedpur playing in ISL with our first team and some in the JFC (Reserves),” he said.
On JFC’s prospects in the upcoming ISL, Carlos said he was optimistic about a good show. “We have signed a very good coach, who loves good football and who has lots of experience working with very good teams. We have also signed some good players,” he added.
