The team got behind their injured team-mate Sergi Alcover
The U10s (Benjamín A) showed how they were a true family in the build-up to their match against CD Onda! To understand why, we go back to a few days before the game. Sergi Alcover, one of the players, fell in a training session, landed badly on his arm, and fractures his ulna and radius. Ferrán Usó, one of the coaches, said: “The positive side of everything is that they operated on him quickly and successfully. We’re sure that he’ll be back training with his team-mates very soon.”
All of the team showed their support for the youngster, showing a t-shirt with the message ‘Ánimo, Sergi’ (Stay strong, Sergi), before their game. “The idea came from some of the parents. They wanted to have a message of support to send to him and they passed the idea on to the coaching staff. We thought it was perfect, we wanted to be involved, and it meant a lot to Sergi. The day before we also had a video call with him from the dressing room to see how he was,” explained Usó.
Little details like this just show how the youngsters are a family: “We’re lucky enough that they’re a group with great human qualities. They’re good team-mates, and they have a good relationship on and off the pitch,” added Usó. “You can see this on the pitch when they pass the ball to each other, they’re always communicating and they celebrate the goals together. It’s a very committed group, with the team and with the coaching staff.”
The team don’t only stand out for their human qualities, but they’re also impressing on the pitch. A lot of the U10s have played together since they started their journey with Villarreal in the U7s (Prebenjamín B) team: “The players are familiar with the vocabulary we use in the academy and the style of playing and conduct we want. Sometimes we don’t need to intervene to get what we want from them, because they’ve been here for so long that they can identify it themselves,” underlines Usó.
However, new players, with the help from team-mates and coaching staff, they always end up adapting to the methodology of the Yellows Academy: “The majority come from teams with other methodologies, but with feedback from the coaching staff and the help from their team-mates, they get into the swing of things. Normally, they are very intelligent boys who are really capable of adapting and that helps their integration a lot,” explained the coach.
The current 2021/22 season promises fun and success for the U10s, who hope to fulfil all of their objectives this season, both on and off the pitch: “On a sporting level, we want the boys to be able to compete at their best level, and that they continue having the drive to improve every day, and for them to be able to gain concepts that they haven’t had the chance to get in previous seasons because of the pandemic,” explains Usó, who adds that off the pitch, “we want to continue forming them in values and motivation, which is important for football.”
These young promises dream of following the path of players such as Pau Torres and Yeremy Pino, youngsters who are now part of the first team after graduating from the academy. “From the coaching staff, we try and give example like this to the players, who know that the club they play for give a lot of opportunities for youngsters to progress, and they care about the academy. They’re clear about that, and they focus on them. They don’t only see the first-team players as idols, but also a lot of players from older age groups,” finalised Usó.
Squad: Alberto Canós, Arturo Albiñana, Daniel Serrano, Daniel Adel, Fran Molero, Iker Vicent, Jorge Beltrán, Juan Mesa, Leo Mezquita, Luis Filipe Laferte, Pablo Verchili, Sergi Alcover.
Coaching staff: Ferran Uso, Juan Manuel Blasco, Cristian Sánchez, Carlos Moreno, Iván Pomba.
