No stopping Al Wasl quest for a Neuer
Four juniors from the club undergoing specialised goalkeeper training in Munich
Four young goalkeepers from Al Wasl Club are having the experience of a lifetime at a two-week intense training camp being held at the Munich Football School (MFS) in Germany.
Al Wasl Club’s junior goalkeepers Fahad Ayub, Hamad Waleed, Saif Abdul Hameed and Abdullah Ali have been in training at the Munich base for the past week along with their coach and coordinator Ali Salem — in a bid to potentially produce the next Manuel Neuer, the Germany and Bayern Munich star.
The juniors have been hand-picked by club management to make the trip and undergo state-of-the-art training as potential future shotstoppers at Al Wasl Club.
The first week of the camp was spent on imparting basic goalkeeper techniques along with eye and foot coordination for the young trainees.
The players meet two times a day at the MFS premises on the outskirts of Munich.
While the morning session is dedicated for on-field training, the evening is spent doing match analysis while picking out mistakes made by some goalkeepers during actual competitions.
“Goalkeeping is an art by itself and the aim of this camp is not just the development of these young players into skillful goalkeepers, but we are also giving due attention to ensure they do not make common mistakes especially in technique,” Dilyan Iliev, a former professional goalkeeper and founder of Gladiator Gloves told Gulf News via email.
“The emphasis definitely is on imparting the German training philosophy in preparing goalkeepers for the future. As the second week progresses we will shift our attention to power training, hand-eye coordination and eye-foot coordination, vision training, balance training and all other specialised spheres of having the best goalkeepers,” he added.
Bayern visit
It won’t be only training for the youngsters, however. The faculty has also included a visit to the home of FC Bayern Munich, the Allianz Arena, along with a visit to BMW World in Munich.
“At the end of the camp I will sit with the coaches and prepare a report on the potential of the young trainees, and this will be handed over to the Al Wasl Club management for further action,” Iliev said.
The camp, organised by SR9 Event Management, is scheduled to conclude on July 24.