next messi

Club Social Parque, the Buenos Aires footballing academy which boasts more superstar graduates than Barcelona’s famous La Masia

Club Social Parque claims famous graduates such as Diego Maradona and Carlos Tevez, and today's kids want to be the next Lionel Messi

  

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Thiago ‘Coco’ Perugini controls the ball in at the Club Social Parque

THE famous Barcelona academy La Masia has a well-earned reputation as football’s greatest fame academy, having produced the likes of Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Xavi and Pep Guardiola.

But a less celebrated coaching centre in downtown Buenos Aires is claiming to have an even better record in making superstars.

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Club Social Parque players huddle with their coach before a match

Club Social Parque in a working class area of Argentina’s capital city boasts none of the glamour and glitz of Barcelona’s football factory.
Yet head scout Ramon Maddoni boasts he has produced more than 200 top stars who have played for the top European teams, and the Argentina national team.
“At Club Parque, we work a lot on the fundamentals, the technique. We recognize talent from a young age and our eye has been sharpening with time,” said Maddoni, head scout at Parque and at the Boca Juniors club children’s division.

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“We’ve discovered more players than La Masia.”

  

       

Maddoni says international superstars like Diego Maradona, Carlos Tevez and Juan Roman Riquelme came through the ranks.
The 75-year-old coach likes to recite the names of the dozens of kids more than 200 by his count that he has coached and who went on to play with Argentina’s national team, local and Europe’s top clubs.

    

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A child plays with a ball at the youth soccer academy, Club Social Parque

(AP:Associated Press)    Ramon Maddoni, head scout at youth soccer academy Club Social Parque with photos of graduates

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Coach Ariel Picallo talks to his team of 7-year-olds at Club Social Parque

 

He recalls how he promised Tevez that he’d be a world-class striker long before he became a top goal scorer for clubs in England and Italy.
Or how Juan Pablo Sorin would cry when Maddoni would line him up on defense, because he wanted to score goals.
Sorin later played left back for Barcelona and Paris Saint Germain, and invited Maddoni on an all-expenses paid trip to Germany to watch him play with Argentina in the 2006 World Cup.
Now he turns his attention to his current young wannabes.
Benjamin Palandella is just seven years old but has already caught the eye.
“Benjamin is different from the group,” Maddoni told Associated Press.
“He can pass with his back turned, he uses both legs. I see some of Riquelme in the way he moves the ball. I see some of ‘Carlitos’ Tevez, in how he uses his hands and leans backward… He’s different.”

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Benjamin Palandella controls the ball during a training session in Buenos Aires, Argentina

 

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Benjamin Palandella puts on his Barcelona jersey adorned with Messi's No 10

After the training game, Benjamin changed into a Barcelona shirt adorned with Messi's number 10 and continued to kick the ball even after the other kids had gone home.
"I want to be like Messi and play for Barcelona," he said. He likes how the Barcelona star "steps" on the ball, scores and shoots free kicks.
Former players say that the secret to Parque is Maddoni's eye for spotting young talent.
But also his insistence on practicing skill sets in reduced spaces and imperfect surfaces where kids learn how to react faster, giving them a competitive advantage when they eventually reach large professional fields.
Players stay in touch with him, and often invite him to dinner when they come to Buenos Aires after playing with European clubs.

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Ramon Maddoni, of Club Social Parque and Boca Juniors children's division, sits on the bench with young player Benjamin Palandella

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A young player collects the ball in the net during a training game at youth soccer academy Club Social Parque

Cesar Lapaglia, a former professional player for Boca Juniors and Spain's Tenerife, who played at Parque under Maddoni from the ages of seven to 13, said: "I often thought about Parque when I needed to resolve a situation on the field.
“I'd have these flashbacks of advice from the coach. And you incorporate all of that naturally because you've repeated it so many times."
Club Social Parque was founded in 1949 when two smaller clubs made up of newspaper delivery men and factory workers merged in the neighborhood of Villa del Parque.
Today, about 150 children as young as 6, and from all economic levels, train together twice a week and compete on the weekends in "Baby," a popular soccer division played in small indoor courts.

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Player steps on a soccer ball during a training session at the youth soccer academy Club Social Parque

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Former graduate Diego Maradona lifts the World Cup in 1986

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Argentina's midfielder Juan Roman Riquelme celebrates after scoring in 2005

 

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Carlos Tevez is another former member of Club Parque

During a recent youth league game played in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, some parents clung to a metal fence and cheered as if they were witnessing the World Cup final. A coach barked orders at their kids on the sideline.
Sitting on the green turf next to him was Thiago Perugini, one of the top young players at Parque.
The 12-year-old with long, curly brown hair is so talented that he has was invited that weekend to play with kids two years older than him for another club. On the field, Perugini showed some of the ball control, precise passes and vision praised by Maddoni.
"The environment is very competitive," said Thiago's mom, Karina Estrada. "These kids have a lot pressure from all the parents screaming from the sidelines of the field. And even if they don't have the pressure, the nerves on edge play against them."
(The Sun, UK)