This past week, I have been on Santiago island. On a KNVP world leadership football coaching course, I found it really interesting and learn’t a lot that I can take back to my teams in Sal. Every Saturday morning I coach a children’s team in Santa Maria, we love having kids out on holiday join us, message me for further details (email link)
I have spent a lot of time thinking about football this week and why it’s so important to me and the local kids. Basically the only thing we had growing up was a ball and beaches, so from an early age we spent all our time kicking a ball around. It’s the same today the kids have very little in the way of possessions, football becomes there passion from a very early age. Some say football is in the genes and I think it probably is but it’s also the amount of time we spend practicing that makes us good.
A lot of the top class football players have Cape Veardean roots:
- Cristiano Ronaldo’s great grandmother was from Sao Vincente
- Patrick Vieira’s mother was Cape Verdean
- Henrik Larsson’s father is Cape Verdean
Who knows I maybe coaching the next big football star, Gus.