On the 9-10th of November, Swedish Professional Football Leagues national development conference will be held in Norrköping. In connection with it, the reference project that was carried out during the year will have its end. Also we welcome Spanish La Liga as our guests to the conference to share their experiences.
“In Norrköping, we will end and analyse all our projects this year”, says Thomas Hasselgren, youth academy developer at Swedish Professional Football.
Invited to the conference are participants from all of the various development projects carried out by Swedish Professional Football during the year including La Liga visits to Athletic Club Bilbao, Real Sociedad and Deportivo Alavés. This includes the development manager project where the clubs’ development managers got to share experiences between each other and together visited Spanish Villarreal and Levante, and the reference project where employees in the academies got to visit clubs abroad to study how they work with talent development.
At the conference, the projects will be presented and the participants will meet again in groups based on which project they have participated in.
“It will be an interesting round off where we get an opportunity to develop further and share both new and old knowledge. In small groups, you also get to discuss what you have implemented in your own academy”, says Thomas Hasselgren.
La Liga will visit Norrköping to discuss player methodology and periodization in academies. La Liga is also bringing Celta Vigo and their academy to Sweden.
“I think this type of exchange is good for all sides. We are proud of the agreement we have with the Swedish league. We want to help each other grow and exchange experiences with football organizations, leagues and clubs. We hope to be able to develop the collaboration even more in the future”, says Carlos Casal Lopez, football coordinator at La Liga who will be one of two people representing La Liga on site in Sweden.
“This is important to us. Football is alive and changing all the time and we must be on our toes to always be at the forefront of the latest. Together with colleagues from other countries, we want to be involved in shaping the football of the future.”
Carlos from La Liga says that the exchange with Sweden and the visit to Sweden is a good opportunity to express oneself and exchange experiences and spread knowledge about La Liga.
“In Sweden, we will continue with the collaboration regarding talent development. We learn from each other and help our clubs support each other. We get to know more about how Swedish clubs work and they get to know more about us. In addition, we spread good knowledge about la liga outside Spain.”
During the days, theory sessions for coach development are mixed with internships where Celta Vigo, among others, shows how they train to improve themselves.
“We are bringing Celta Vigo’s academy as a good example to show you in Sweden. They will show their way of working, how they created their methodology, how they do with individual training. The most important thing for us in the academies is the development of the individual player and we will show that to the Swedes”, says Carlos Casal Lopez.
“Celta will conduct both practical and theoretical sessions in Norrköping, also with Swedish players involved.”
Part of the exchange means that the Swedish clubs also show how they work with talent development. Even though La Liga and the Spanish academies are ranked higher than their Swedish counterparts, the Spaniards believe that there is a lot for the clubs in Spain to learn from Sweden as well.
“Part of my job is to have knowledge of the development of different countries, in my case the Scandinavian countries. Sweden is a country that is close to us in technological development. Sweden has a proud football tradition and more and more Swedes are appearing at regular intervals in La Liga. Sweden has a platform to continue to develop. We have Isak in Real Sociedad, Guidetti in CD Alavés and Augustinsson in Sevilla FC a part from other youngsters in the reserve teams and lower categories. During the last years, Sweden is getting the results of the good work they are performing in grassroots, more and more Swedish players are ready to go further in their careers and fit the highest competitive demands having a very interesting profile to play in modern football”, concludes Carlos Casal Lopez.
The national development conference will be held in Norrköping between the 9-10th of November.
