Buenos Aires club that has formed more than 40 international stars has 2 promising players.
Buenos Aires club that has formed more than 40 international stars has 2 promising players.
Benjamin Palandella, 7, puts his Barcelona shirt after a training game at the Club Social Parque youth football academy in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The club has trained dozens of professional football players. (Photos by Natacha Pisarenko / AP)
Benjamin
Palandella dribbles around a bigger boy who just charges to him and
shoots at the goal with shocking force for a 7-year-old. Nearby, children jump to the head of a ball tied on a rope, tiptoe on the hoops and dribble around orange cones.
The children who train in this concrete yard in Buenos Aires, Argentina, play for Club Social Parque. It is the same football talent factory where international stars like Diego Maradona, Carlos Tevez and Juan Roman Riquelme polished their skills as children.
The youth academy "La Masia" of Spain is perhaps the famous base of the success of Barcelona and where Lionel Messi began to train at 13 years when emigrated from Argentina. But Club Social Parque, a humble youth academy in Messi's native country, may have produced more world-class players than any other. At least 40 have become major international stars.
During the practice, many children wore the Messi jersey in Barcelona and dream of becoming the next Argentinian footballer. The coach often credited for the success of the academy oversees their sideline exercises.
"At Club Parque, we work a lot on fundamentals, technique. We recognize talent from an early age and our eyes sharpened over time, "said Ramon Maddoni, Scout leader in Parque and Boca Juniors children division of the club. "We have discovered more players than La Masia."
Benjamin stands with his father Gaston at home in Buenos Aires. "Benjamin is very shy but turns into the field," said his father.
The 75-year-old coach likes to recite the names of dozens of children - over 200 by his count - whom he coached and who then played with the Argentine national team, local and European clubs.
He remembers that he had promised Tévez to be a world class striker long before he became the top scorer of the clubs in England and Italy.
Or how Juan Pablo Sorín would cry when Maddoni was going to line it up with the defense, because he wanted to score goals. Sorin then played left for Barcelona and Paris Saint Germain, and invited Maddoni on an all-expenses paid trip to Germany to watch him play with Argentina in the 2006 World Cup.
These days, he recites names of new young talents.Ramon Maddoni, main scout at the youth football academy Club Social Parque and Boca Juniors children's club, pose with photos of himself with professional players Carlos Tevez and Fernando Gago.
"Benjamin is different from the group," he said of Palandella. "He can go with his back turned, he uses both legs. I see a bit of Riquelme in the way he moves the ball. I see some of "Carlitos" Tevez, in the way he uses his hands and leans back ... He's different. "
After the training match, Benjamin changed into a Barcelona shirt adorned with Messi's number 10 and continued to kick the ball even after the other kids had gone home.
"I want to be like Messi and play for Barcelona," he said.
He said he loves how the Barcelona star "steps" on the ball, scoring and shooting free kicks. Like Messi, "Benjamin is very shy, but he is transforming himself on the ground," said his father Gaston Pallandela.
Former players say that the secret of Parque is the eye of Maddoni to spot young talents. But also its insistence on the practice of skill sets in confined spaces and imperfect surfaces where children learn to react faster, giving them a competitive edge when they eventually reach large professional domains.
The players stay in touch with him, and often invite him to dinner when they come to Buenos Aires after playing with European clubs.
"I often thought of Parque when I needed to solve a situation on the ground. I would have these flashbacks of coach advice. And you incorporate all this naturally because you have repeated it so many times, "said Cesar La Paglia, a former professional player for Boca Juniors and Spain Tenerife, who played at the Parque under Maddoni from 7 to 13 years old.
Today, about 150 children from the age of 6, and from all economic levels, train twice a week and compete on weekends.
At a recent youth league meeting
Benjamin Palandella, 7, puts his Barcelona shirt after a training game at the Club Social Parque youth football academy in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The club has trained dozens of professional football players. (Photos by Natacha Pisarenko / AP)
Benjamin
Palandella dribbles around a bigger boy who just charges to him and
shoots at the goal with shocking force for a 7-year-old. Nearby, children jump to the head of a ball tied on a rope, tiptoe on the hoops and dribble around orange cones.The children who train in this concrete yard in Buenos Aires, Argentina, play for Club Social Parque. It is the same football talent factory where international stars like Diego Maradona, Carlos Tevez and Juan Roman Riquelme polished their skills as children.
The youth academy "La Masia" of Spain is perhaps the famous base of the success of Barcelona and where Lionel Messi began to train at 13 years when emigrated from Argentina. But Club Social Parque, a humble youth academy in Messi's native country, may have produced more world-class players than any other. At least 40 have become major international stars.
During the practice, many children wore the Messi jersey in Barcelona and dream of becoming the next Argentinian footballer. The coach often credited for the success of the academy oversees their sideline exercises.
"At Club Parque, we work a lot on fundamentals, technique. We recognize talent from an early age and our eyes sharpened over time, "said Ramon Maddoni, Scout leader in Parque and Boca Juniors children division of the club. "We have discovered more players than La Masia."
Benjamin stands with his father Gaston at home in Buenos Aires. "Benjamin is very shy but turns into the field," said his father.The 75-year-old coach likes to recite the names of dozens of children - over 200 by his count - whom he coached and who then played with the Argentine national team, local and European clubs.
He remembers that he had promised Tévez to be a world class striker long before he became the top scorer of the clubs in England and Italy.
Or how Juan Pablo Sorín would cry when Maddoni was going to line it up with the defense, because he wanted to score goals. Sorin then played left for Barcelona and Paris Saint Germain, and invited Maddoni on an all-expenses paid trip to Germany to watch him play with Argentina in the 2006 World Cup.
These days, he recites names of new young talents.Ramon Maddoni, main scout at the youth football academy Club Social Parque and Boca Juniors children's club, pose with photos of himself with professional players Carlos Tevez and Fernando Gago.
"Benjamin is different from the group," he said of Palandella. "He can go with his back turned, he uses both legs. I see a bit of Riquelme in the way he moves the ball. I see some of "Carlitos" Tevez, in the way he uses his hands and leans back ... He's different. "After the training match, Benjamin changed into a Barcelona shirt adorned with Messi's number 10 and continued to kick the ball even after the other kids had gone home.
"I want to be like Messi and play for Barcelona," he said.
He said he loves how the Barcelona star "steps" on the ball, scoring and shooting free kicks. Like Messi, "Benjamin is very shy, but he is transforming himself on the ground," said his father Gaston Pallandela.
Former players say that the secret of Parque is the eye of Maddoni to spot young talents. But also its insistence on the practice of skill sets in confined spaces and imperfect surfaces where children learn to react faster, giving them a competitive edge when they eventually reach large professional domains.
The players stay in touch with him, and often invite him to dinner when they come to Buenos Aires after playing with European clubs.
"I often thought of Parque when I needed to solve a situation on the ground. I would have these flashbacks of coach advice. And you incorporate all this naturally because you have repeated it so many times, "said Cesar La Paglia, a former professional player for Boca Juniors and Spain Tenerife, who played at the Parque under Maddoni from 7 to 13 years old.
Today, about 150 children from the age of 6, and from all economic levels, train twice a week and compete on weekends.At a recent youth league meeting
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