Kids benefit from Benfica stars
Budding football stars had the chance to learn from expert coaches as part of a link up with a European giant.
Milton Rovers utilised their link with Coerver Coaching to bring over coaches from Portuguese side Benfica.
And the club’s Coerver co-ordinator Douglas Fleming revealed the kids made the most of last week’s sessions with the professional experts, with some already moving on to big things.
He said: “It’s incredible to have Benfica coaches in Carluke and fantastic experience for our players.
“Milton Rovers partnership with Coerver Coaching is ultimately to develop skilled, confident and creative local players by making football fun, while delivering serious values to practice and games.
“The club’s teams have become stronger as a result, many competing for cups and league titles on a regular basis. Success in the more technical game of Futsal has also been on the increase.
“The club has seen a massive rise in the number of players, both boys and girls, scouted into professional teams with kids currently at Rangers, Celtic, Motherwell and Hamilton.
“Several have also gained international caps and attended full-time education at the SFA’S elite performance academies.”
Coerver Coaching Technical Director and Scotland coach Joe Jones said: “We have been working with Milton Rovers for over four years now as a Coerver Partner Club.
“Throughout this time the club has shown a real desire to develop not only the club’s players but also their coaches.
“We were delighted to bring this exclusive opportunity to the club and their excellent facilities at Burn Road.”
Benfica coach Jose Bruno said: “We were really happy with how the players reacted during our sessions with them.
“They showed great intensity, focus, spirit and also a very good level of skill.
“We were also very impressed by their intelligence and decision making during the work.
“Thank you for hosting us, we really enjoyed the excellent facilities and the welcome from the Scottish people.”
Benfica’s Academy has produced top players around the world, including Man City stars Bernardo Silva and Ederson, Atletico Madrid’s Joao Felix and Bayern Munich’s Renato Sanches.