It’s not the Champions League or the World Cup, and the world’s best players aren’t out on the field running around, but youth football still has the ability to produce some of the most incredible footballing moments ever witnessed.
We come across a lot of amazing amateur moments at The Roar, so we thought we’d compile a list of some of the best.
Remember that goal you scored when you played youth football? Unfortunately you probably never came close to besting the effort from this Turkish 12-year-old.
This run and long-range goal is so incredible, it has many already dubbing the child responsible as a future Cristiano Ronaldo.
We’re not sure how much fun could be had when you’re so much better than all your opponents that you can perform such feats, but hey, he’s probably only a few months off from landing a professional contract with a European powerhouse.
Spanish giants Barcelona are renowned for their passing game, using the tiki-taka style of play to move the ball with patience and composure, often resulting in incredible team goals.
While individual goals tend to get all the attention it’s nice to see a quality team goal where almost every player is used in an attacking build up.
An Ipswich Under-14 side has shown us exactly how that’s done. Go teamwork!
Is there anything much better in football than a perfect lob goal? We’re not sure there is.
To pull one off requires a perfect blend of touch and judgement, and the result is maximum embarrassment and frustration for your opposition goalkeeper (and his teammates).
Some men spend hours, weeks and even years trying to perfect the skill. Then some kid comes along and just swings his boot and with zero effort scores one of the greatest lobs we’ve ever seen.
We’ve all seen our fair share of people taking sport too seriously. People fighting, yelling, telling their opponent that their mate ‘banged’ their girlfriend.
It’s not pretty, but it happens. We can accept that.
What we can’t accept though is a crazy youth coach taking out his frustration with physical violence towards his own players.
We think it’s safe to say that this guy should never be allowed to coach kids again… or anyone, ever!
We’ve all heard about David Beckham’s boys and know how good they’re going to be. But have you ever wondered what it takes to be a true child prodigy (without a name to ride on the back of)?
Meet Pietro Tomaselli. He’s a nine-year-old from Belgium who has already landed a contract with one of Europe’s biggest clubs, AS Roma.
If you think nine is a little young, just watch his moves – the kid is going to be a star!
SVB
Guest
Finally Foz is 'walking the walk' after sticking it to so many other coaches for so many years :) . Onya Fozzie. But I am not surprised by the standard in the video. I have seen some of the games at junior level between some NPL clubs who have a good youth system, and the stuff they were doing was far more advanced compared to what was happening in my day. The thing is that Australia is getting smashed at youth level right now, so you have to wonder how good a lot of those other nations are that are winning those youth world cups.
AZ_RBB
Guest
A really great find, Fuss. Some questionable defending in there but it's rare for a good defender to hit their stride until their late teens. It's just the nature of the game, in my opinion at least. What I most enjoyed about that video was the first quality of first touches. Watching the ALeague and comparing locals to foreigners, one of the main things I've noticed is that many of our local players possess a first touch far inferior to what we see in a lot of the foreigners who come down. I hardly saw a single poor first touch in that 9min video. Some great passing and moving as well.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Some promising signs in Australia, too with kids being developed under the FFA's National Curriculum which places an emphasis on technical development of young kids. Here is a 9' video highlights of 14yr old kids from FNSW Institute - impressive technical attributes & tactical nous. Oh, yeah .. they're coached by Craig Foster! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqAT25qYr7g
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Roar Guru
Being a coach of year 7 kids - i sometimes find No.4 very hard to control myself