Let's Aspire To Be Different

 Talent scouts the way to go forward

Youth and Sport Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman had recently said that considerations are in the air to scout for young foreign football talent and train them at the National Football Development Programme (NFDP) at the Mokhtar Dahari Academy in Gambang, Pahang, with view to naturalise these players to represent the nation in the future.

Was enough thought put into this idea before making the statement – like what kind of message is being put across local young talent under the NFDP, is this the way to go forward, is Malaysia really dearth of talent and will the proposal work.

NST Sport in an exclusive interview spoke to Asian Football Confederation general secretary, Datuk Windsor Paul John, on his thoughts on the idea.

Windsor having experienced an entire spectrum of football as player, coach and now administrator, bluntly put it that Malaysia has a wide base of talented players and there is no need to look for foreign talent.

By Tony Mariadass

Malaysia do not need to look for foreign talent to become a prominent football nation in the near because it was a wide base of talent which is not tapped.

These was the strong statement made by Asian Football Confederation (AFC) general secretary, Datuk Windsor Paul John.

“What Malaysian football needs is talent scouts to move forward and unearth the wide base of talent which is waiting to be spotted and polished to become gems,” said the 59-year-old Windsor when met at the AFC headquarters in Bukit Jalil.

“Talent scouts are part and parcel of the game all over the world but is non-existence in Malaysia.

“We do have to go far to look how the talent scouts’ systems works and its model. Just look at our neighbour have Thailand. Just look at the number of talented players it unearths and how football has progressed in the country.”

Windsor said the only form of talent scout that is existent in Malaysia is through coaches from the national or state bodies who occasionally go for youth tournaments to look for talented players.

“But these coaches, normally attend the final of a tournament. What happens to the odd talented players whose teams fail to make the final rounds?

“Teams may not do well and fail to make the final rounds, but there could be one or two players who are talented but because football is a team again and overall strength of the team is the full composition of the team, we lose these talented players because no one is there to pick them up.

“We have lost many players in this manner. But if talent scouts were present they could have picked up these players.”

Windsor also said that in Thailand there is national age-group tournaments for all age groups from 8 years old.

“This is the ground where thousands of young players can display their talent and get spotted. In Malaysia do we have a platform as wide spread like the Thais and is run over a period of time and not on carnival basis over weekends or couple of months,” he asked.

So who can be talent scouts and what is the criteria?

“Firstly one must an ‘eye’ to spot talent. Who has these ‘eyes’? Most of the time it is ex-state or international players, coaches, teachers or people who have technical knowledge of the game.

“Anyone can spot a player who is born gifted to play, but it takes a spotting ‘eye’ to identify talent. A talent does not have to be complete player. He can be someone who has a good left foot, good on both feet, good football sense, good physique among others.

“Talent scouts pick up uncut diamonds and polish them to become gems.”

So what is in it for talent scouts?

“Of course there must be remunerations for them. They can be hired on a fulltime basis as talent scouts for clubs or states. Ex-international associations can play role by offering their members.

“Coaches who can become talent scouts are those who do not make to the highest level as coaches.

“Individual talent scouts are plenty in Europe and they comb all youth tournaments to spot talent. These scouts have to be rewarded when the players they spot, sign their first contract.

“To ensure that everything is above board and does not violate contractual dealings, there has to be a guidelines set up for them to operate and adhere to it strictly.

“If Malaysia can set up this talent scout entity which becomes part of the footballs setup in Malaysia, we will without doubt see our talent base become wider and we need not look for foreign talent.”

Windsor said countries like Qatar rely on foreign talent who become citizens of their countries because they do not have a base.

“Locals in Qatar are not many who interested to play football. It is different in Malaysia because we have a football culture, football is the No 1 sport and played in every part of Malaysia.”

Windsor also warned about bring in young talent as contracts cannot be signed with players below 16 and between 16-18 it has to be a parental contract.

“And the possibility of these foreign young talent leaving to return to their home country before they come of age to sign contracts is also high.

“At the Aspire Academy in Qatar which the Sports Minister wanted to emulate, it was established in 2004 to find and develop the best young make Qatari athletes, whilst also providing them with high quality secondary school education. Eventually they also offered scholarships to foreign young talent with the hope of giving them citizenships and represent their nation.

“Since the population in Qatar is small the identification of talents was at an early age by cooperating with schools and sports federations. They have multi-sport skills development centres across Qatar to promote sports and prepare talented youth before they reach the appropriate age to be considered for the Academy. 

“In football they conduct scouting in the clubs and schools as well as having our own Talent Centres, then Feeder Groups, that start working with the boys at a very early stage and only the best young Qatari athletes and footballers receive scholarships to join Aspire.

Aspire also started the CSR initiative that is now known as "Aspire Football Dreams" in 2005, when Aspire Academy and the stakeholders in Qatar looked for a way to support developing countries in combination with helping local Aspire talents in their development.

Given the philosophy and background of Aspire Academy, providing scholarships and giving then 14-year-old boys the opportunity to get a profound education combined with the best possible environment to be able to start a career as professional football player, seemed to be the best fit.

The program was kicked off 2007 in Africa, involving seven countries and 430,000 young football players that were screened. In 2008 an extension to three continents (Asia, Africa, Latin America) took place to support more regions and children and a satellite branch of Aspire Academy was installed in Senegal. Since the start in 2007 until 2014 more than 3.5 million kids have been screened in 17 countries with 18–20 scholarships awarded each year.

“And these players are offered to represent Qatar,” said Windsor.

Thus, the Sports Minister’s suggestion to admit foreign talent at NFDP looks hard to fall in place.

Probably it is time that FA of Malaysia, State FAs and clubs seriously start thinking about establishing the talent scout culture and system into Malaysian football not only to create a wider base of talented pool of players for the domestic league, but also see Malaysian football standards rise in the near future.

Ends.

Brief on Datuk Windsor Paul John: 

Instilled with a lifelong passion for football, the former school teacher from Kedah featured for the state’s youth team and later extended his love for the game when he turned trainer for Selangor in 1992.

He then coached the Selangor President’s Cup team in 1994 and thereafter, went on to hold various positions in several organisations, including the Football Association of Malaysia and the Asean Football Federation. In 2001, Windsor joined FIFA as its Development Officer and later served as a performance consultant.

Since taking helm as the AFC General Secretary in 2015, Windsor has been instrumental in the implementation of the AFC’s new Vision and Mission under the guidance of AFC President Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa. Since its launch in January 2016, Windsor has spearheaded the restructuring and transformation journey of the AFC administration to bring to life the desired outcomes envisaged under the new Vision and Mission.

He has also led Asian football’s staunch stand against matching-fixing, as the AFC continues to be one of the most committed sport bodies in the world on the issue.

An avid believer of fostering unity in the world of football, Windsor has worked with his Executive team to implement the AFC’s partnerships with fellow Confederations and most recently, under his tenure, AFC President Shaikh Salman signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) and Confederation Africaine de Football (CAF) in 2016.

Throughout his career, Windsor has also been entrusted by FIFA in various senior capacities in several major football spectacles, which include five FIFA World Cups as well as the first in Asia – 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan; the 2009 and 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup and the Copa America Centenario USA 2016.

His skilled expertise and meticulous attention to detail has also resonated across the AFC’s ever-improving competitions with the AFC Asian Cup 2015 Australia, the AFC Under-23 Championship Qatar 2016 as well as the AFC Champions League and AFC Cup, all achieving new records and milestones on multiple fronts, including spectatorship, fan engagement and T.V viewership.

A football man in every sense of the word, Windsor has set his sights to enhance the level of professionalism and capabilities of the AFC Member Associations as one of the key drivers to transform the AFC into the world’s leading confederation.