Playing against foreigners
"Those damn Argentinian, Brazilian, Malawian and French wonderkids keep taking all the jobs - I mean football contracts!"
Good morning! I want to talk about why you need to take your team or your player abroad to play football.
Before we start, please check that The Weekly Rondo is marked as “important” in your inbox. Each week just under 50% of readers aren’t being shown the latest issue in their main inbox.
Neat Reads
Neat Reads is a segment where I share an article or podcast that interests me and relates to our weekly theme.
“Even being exposed to a different football culture for 90 minutes can change you.” - Eni Aluko
I recently read a Guardian article (link here) by Eni Aluko that talks about the benefits of players playing abroad. While the comparison between Foden and Sancho is somewhat outdated, the message to players and coaches remains the same:
Go play or coach abroad. You’ll most likely be better for it.
Stop playing in your back garden
… if you can!
I think it’s very important to play against foreign players or teams because of the challenges it exposes you to.
New playing style - Direct? Possession based? Reliance of physicality?
New standards - Do these South Americans or Europeans treat the match like your pay-to-play club or college on tour in their country?
New language - How will you react to information in a language you can’t speak?
These reasons (and more I’m sure) are why players need to get abroad with their club or by themselves as soon as possible.
Players:
Pay for a trial in the UAE. It may be pay to play but being able to play with English, Spanish, Brazilian, Nigerian, etc. players is a privilege.
Having played 5-aside football for fun in Malawi with all the above mentioned players (and against!) the difference is staggering, even at a casual level.
Coaches:
Can you find tours for your teams?
Will clubs want to host you?
Does your club have an international partner?
These are questions you need to be asking yourselves if you want to see your players challenged in a new environment.
Exercise of the Week
I had to dig this one out from the archives as it was the only one I felt sort of related to my theme.
I got asked to work with our wide players and, while fun, it was extremely challenging because of simplistic it was. I hadn’t done position specific group training in over three years before this session - so it was almost like coaching a new sport!
Conclusion
Thanks for reading this week! If you’ve noticed, I removed the Coach’s Corner section. The Q&A got very little engagement on a weekly basis and the ramblings can fall under the main body of this newsletter.
Share this newsletter with a friend or every single person you have ever met.
See you next week!
Kindest,
Cameron