The French FA Football Academy

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Le Centre Technique National Fernand Sastre (Fernand Sastre National Technical Centre), commonly referred to as Clairefontaine, is the national football centre and is one of the nine elite academies of France; only the best players from the Paris agglomeration train there, there are eight other elite youth academies in Metropolitan France (Castelmaurou, Chateauroux, Liévin, Dijon, Marseille, Ploufragan, Vichy and Reims).

Youth development

Youth development at Clairefontaine incorporates many principles on football with their students, such as;

Making the player’s movements faster and better
Linking movements efficiently and wisely
Using the weaker foot
Weaknesses in the player’s game
Psychological factors (sports personality tests)
Medical factors
Physical tests ie bleep test
Technical skills
Skill Training (Juggling the ball, running with the ball, dribbling,
kicking, passing and ball control

Tactical (To help the ball carrier, to get the ball back,
to offer support, to pass the ball and follow the pass, positioning and the movement into space

FORMAT OF COACHING

In France young players are not signed at any professional club until later in their development, around the age of 13-15. This means the amateur game is far stronger in the longer term. It also means that the coaching level is higher at amateur clubs due to less employment of coaches in academies from age 7-12.

Other players that would be left behind in the UK actually improve over time too due to playing with better players each week and learning from them. This leads to increased competition and better attitudes among players in the main.

The French academy has been responsible for producing some of the finest players in the game today, such as Thierry Henry, Patrick Vierra, Zidane to name but a few.
www.tonys-soccer-school.com

PRINCIPLES OF THE ACADEMIES SESSIONS:

Heavy emphasis on ball juggling with the correct technique, no spinning of the ball!
Technical detail on striking the ball - feeling the technique and looking at hip rotation
First touch
Turning with the ball - concentrating on balance and hip rotation
Possession - only moved onto when players technique is ready to cope with high performance
No matches, games for 1.5 years until technique is perfected
No emphasis on results - each match is a training session
High value on learning and making mistakes and being a perfectionist

www.tonys-soccer-school.com