UAE, Japan juniors grow as a team
Abu Dhabi-Japan Football Partnership Programme marks second successful year
The Abu Dhabi-Japan Football Partnership Programme, implemented by the Japan International Cooperation Centre (JICE) and Abu Dhabi Sports Council (ADSC), has successfully completed a second year of activities focused on the technical and personal development of young Emirati and Japanese players.
The bilateral programme is a unique collaboration aiming to jointly promote and further develop the sporting skills of young aspiring sportsmen by providing them with international experiences, exposure to different training methods and opportunities to demonstrate, share and learn from their collective and individual strengths.
A selection of Abu Dhabi’s football youth elite from the football academies of Al Ain, Al Dhafra, Al Jazira, Al Wahda, and Baniyas, visited Japan last year for a series of training workshops at the Yokohama F Marinos Football Academy. In return, two groups of Japanese players from the Marinos Academy and Cerezo Osaka Academy recently descended on the UAE’s capital for reciprocal activities as well as friendly matches.
Houriya Al Taheri, the coach of the UAE women’s team and ADSC representative overseeing the UAE delegation to Japan said: “Through their time there, our young talents naturally picked up good elements from their Japanese counterparts, becoming more disciplined in their approach, and more concentrated on the play.”
Khalid Al Beloushi, a coach with the Al Ain and UAE Under-17 teams, helped welcome the Japanese players. “The Japanese players were highly focused during their training, something that really impressed me,” he said.
Takahiro Ito, the Cerezo Osaka academy coach, added: “The individual capabilities and skills of the young Emirati players are quite high, and it was a great learning experience and encounter for our participating Cerezo Osaka youth players to play more self-determined and aggressive football like the Emirati players.”