By Daily Sports on June 22, 2017

Spain junior international Hector Belerin is currently helping his nation in the Euro Under-21 Nations Cup tournament where they've advanced into the semi final of the competition which is holding in the Czech Republic.

Spain has been very successful in the past decade in youth and senior international football, and their dominance of world club football is still on. However, Arsenal's right back Belerin feels that England has a better youth football system that he expects to turn England into a big football force. 

Given the success of England's Under-20 team who won the just concluded Junior World Cup in South Korea and the progress of the England Under-20 in the ongoing European junior championship, Belerin may be making a telling point.

The 20-year-old Arsenal man said: “Everything is much more professional in England, at an early age.

“I remember doing hydration tests, body fat tests, mobility tests, looking at the data after the games, during training sessions, everything.

“When I was at Barcelona it was all about the football. It was a completely different mentality. Also the league was way different in Spain.

“You play against the other teams in your region. For us that meant Catalonia and we only had a couple of games each season that were difficult for us. That was against Espanyol, the other top-division team in the city.

“But here playing for Arsenal we used to play all around England against other Premier League teams. So the difference was really big in loads of senses.

“I also think in England you have to travel a lot and spend nights in hotels from an early age. That gives you a really good taste of what it is like as a pro footballer. 

“You learn early on that it can be a lonely life. Of course you are with your team-mates, but you find out early that there are lots of things that you cannot do, and there are a lot of family events that you cannot attend. 

“You need to realise that from a young age and the fact you have to travel so much to play against teams far from home, it gives you an early taste of how it is at the top level.” 

There are hopefully, some insights here for Nigerian football administrators and clubs and grassroots players. For the administrators, they have to be forward thinking in terms of ensuring that the latest training methods are adopted with modern techniques of players’ assessment and improvements.

Source Daily Sports

Posted June 22, 2017

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