SAAD GOES ON TALENT HUNT
NFDP technical director aims to improve scouting system
WHEN Saad Ichalalene, a former coach of Paris Saint-Germain’s Youth Academy arrived in Malaysia three years ago, he found out that talent scouting here was quite different from Europe’s.
At that time, the former French footballer of Algerian descent had just joined the National Football Development Programme (NFDP) as its head of coaching methodology and talent scouting.
But since the 32-year-old became the NFDP technical director late last year, his mission is to cultivate the modern playing methods and the qualities required of young players under the FA of Malaysia’s Football DNA programme.
And talent scouting is serious business for Ichalalène as he looks for hidden gems at Akademi Tunas, District Training Centre and state sports schools level.
Ichalalene, who is based at the
National Sports Council in Bukit Jalil, said among the first things he set out to do was to improve the scouting department.
He felt that more importance should be placed on scouting and selection of players for tournaments, including national schools championships.
“I remembered when I first arrived, the selection was done by quota, with every state sending five players for centralised training and from there the selection was done. But sometimes, maybe the sixth and seventh players from one state could be better than the number two in another state.
“This kind of quota system is totally the opposite of players selection on merit.
“We reorganised the scouting department (in NFDP). That was a big thing to do.”
The next mission for Saad, along with coaches Abdi Hassan (from the Netherlands) and Franck Plaine (France) was to help local coaches in the programme get familiarised with the required training methodology.
“We want coaches during the training to create the conditions to push players to improve the decision-making, facing different game situations as close as possible from matches,”
“They can be through technical exercises or tactical game situations,” he said.
“It is very important to create situations, make the players in a situation decide. All these cognitive aspects are important for us to change the mindset.
“We’re very lucky because there are people in Malaysia who want to improve and they have potential. They just want to be guided to experiencing new things.”
Ichalalene, a former PSG Youth Academy defender whose playing career was cut short by injuries at the age of 24, said he can now see a lot of positives coming out of Malaysian youth football.
But he said for Malaysia’s youth development to thrive, the country must have a football ecosystem that is working well to produce various layers of players for the national team.
“It’s about the whole ecosystem right down from grassroots. This will only work if all parties work together. It is important to keep in mind that it’s about a country working for one sport, one football, one passion,” he said.
“You too. You have your job to do because you are part of this ecosystem as a journalist through newspapers, televisions, radios. This is the only way to a good football future.”
There are three things that Ichalalene wants to instil into youth players as part of the Malaysian football DNA plan: the ability to think, make decisions and evaluate.
He said all this is part of football development in Europe and it is centred around cognitive aspects.
“Not only do we want players who can think, make the right decisions at the right moment but also to evaluate situations of the game.’
“There is also specific criteria on positions and there is consideration on biological maturation as well.”
This means a coach does not have to limit his team to only “physically matured players” but can accommodate “some late bloomers” with a different profile and talent.
“We have to explain to the coaches that this is not because a player matures late or finds it difficult at 11 or 12 years old that he couldn’t become a good football player at 20.
“And during all this development, those who mature late will have to develop other skills and be more efficient cognitively because it is his only way to compensate his physical deficit.”
“We have to evaluate each player without medical and technological tools but we are experienced enough to know how to do that. We also have to identify those who can be developed for the future.”