S'pore's best football talenst for Clairefontaine

The likes of Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka and Louis Saha honed their talents at France's top football academy Clairefontaine and young Singaporeans could soon be headed there for training too.

This option has opened up after the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) and French Football Federation (FFF) signed a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday.

Under the four-year agreement, they will organise regular exchanges involving coaches, referees, officials and youth players.

These will centre on youth development, coaches' education, referees' training and tapping on FFF's expertise in administration.

FAS president Zainudin Nordin, who was appointed to a third two-year term as the supremo last week, said work is under way to identify youngsters to be sent to France.

"This partnership will see to provide opportunities for our talented young players to train at Clairefontaine, which has produced great footballing legends.

"Youth development is one of the key areas we have pinned down and we will ensure that it will happen."

FAS general secretary Winston Lee said youngsters under consideration include Mahathir Azeman, currently with Brazilian club Boavista, and the two oldest sons of Singapore football great Fandi Ahmad - Irfan and Ikhsan.

"This is not a paper exercise," Zainudin emphasised. "There will be solid activity between the FAS and FFF."

FFF vice-president Bernard Desumer, on his part, is convinced they have a good partnership. "It will be alive with sharing and exchanges between the two associations. In football, we call that the 'one-two'.

"Now, we have to score."

The partnership kicked off yesterday when a FFF delegation, including its national technical director Francois Blaquart and head of international relations Alain Casteran, shared best practices with senior FAS officials such as technical director Slobodan Pavkovic and deputy director of development and planning Ridzal Saat.

Starting from Friday, a four-day course on the French way of youth development will be taught at FAS.

Although targeted at the National Football Academy and youth coaches at the various S-League centres of excellence, S-League first-team coaches like Aide Iskandar (Courts Young Lions) and V. Kanan (Geylang International) are slated to attend too.

In 2011, the FAS also signed two high-profile MOUs with the Japan Football Association (JFA) and Football Association of Malaysia (FAM).

"I'm very happy with the solid partnership with JFA," said Zainudin. "They really opened their doors to host our national and youth teams and our boys came back with positive experiences to share."

The partnership with FAM was more rocky. While it saw a return to the Malaysia Cup for Singapore and success came this year with the LionsXII lifting the Malaysian Super League title, there was friction in May when the annual Causeway Challenge friendly matches between the two national teams were cancelled abruptly.

"In my view, it is still a positive partnership with the FAM. Things still managed to pan out," noted Zainudin.

Friends in football

MOU with the Japan Football Association (signed in 2011)

• JFA recommended former J-League player Takuma Koga to the FAS.

     The 43-year-old has coached the Singapore Under-16s and is now training the national Under-14s.
     His salary is believed to be subsidised by the JFA.

• The Lions spent six days in Japan last November, played a friendly against J-League club Shimizu S-Pulse and bonded ahead of their ASEAN Football Federation Suzuki Cup triumph.

MOU with the Football Association of Malaysia (signed in 2011)

• Singapore returned to the Malaysian domestic competition in 2012 and won the Malaysian Super League in July.
• Malaysia's Harimau Muda B, the national team for players aged 19-21, play in the S-League.
• There is provision for an annual Causeway Challenge between the two countries' national teams but this year's edition was abruptly cancelled in May.
• The FAM may want to review the composition of the LionsXII and remove the berths for five senior players aged above 23.

meng@sph.com.sg

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