The Younghusband Football Academy : Setting the Foundations of Football in the Philippines

There is no doubt that football has gained quite a popularity in the Philippines in the last few months, thanks to the half-Filipino, half-British Younghusband brothers, Phil and James who lead the Azkals team.  Their successive wins have attracted a growing fan base composed mostly of teenage girls, never mind if many of them can’t tell an audible from an automatic.  

Aside from their passion for football, these 24-year old heartthrobs who were born only eleven months apart revealed to smartparenting.com.ph their vision for football in the Philippines.  If their newly-instituted Younghusband Football Academy in Alabang, Muntinlupa is a sign of things to come, then we have much to look forward to.  

LDS: Summer is almost here, and parents who are looking for a sport for their young kids are probably asking, why football?

Phil :
Whether it’s football or any other sport, it’s important for kids to stay active and stay healthy.  The good thing about football is, anyone can play.  In basketball, you have to be tall; in rugby, if you want to succeed you have to be big.  In football there’s no discrimination – you can be thin, you can be tall, you can be fat – no matter what you are, you can play football.  Because there are more players in the game, you meet more people, you socialize and learn to be part of a team.

For us it’s also about self-expression.  In basketball you have time-outs and the coach tells you what play to run, or in American football you stop, then you run a play.  There’s a lot of set plays, whereas in football, it’s your chance to express yourself, whether you make the wrong decision or right decision it’s up to you.

James:
As a little kid you just want to run around, and as Phil said, the good thing about football is that you have to be creative and you have to make your own decisions.  I remember when we were younger, during our summer holidays our Dad would sign us up for six weeks of football practice, and we’d say, “aww, we just wanna watch TV!”

LDS: So that’s how you started?

James:
Yeah.  And then we’d go but at first we’d say “I don’t really want to go”, but once we won, we really enjoyed it, we loved it and we wanted to go everyday.  Playing football is better than being at home and being a couch potato and watching TV …  

Phil:
… or hanging out on the street.  Instead of that, you can be socializing with friends, running around, staying active and staying fit.  Fitness-wise, football is one of the most demanding sports.  Number one is car racing, number two is boxing, and number three is football.  If you really want to be fit and play a team sport, then football is ideal.

James:
That’s why it also builds confidence for young kids.

Read more about our interview with James and Phil Younghusband in the next page.

 

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LDS: At what age can kids start playing football?

Phil:
If someone is strong enough to walk and kick … we have players who are three- and four-years old.  Obviously it’s just about having fun and running around, seeing a ball and touching a ball.  We have (in our training) a section where you’re just kicking a ball, touching it.  For young kids, it’s fun and ideal.

LDS: So why put up the Academy in the Philippines and not elsewhere?

Phil:
Everywhere else, football is already popular, it’s the biggest sport in the world.  We feel there is room for improvement.  We are Filipinos so the Philippines is an ideal place to promote football and get ready to win.

James:
We saw so much potential to play.  That guy who scored our first goal into Mongolia, Emelio Caligdong is not the biggest player but he grew up here and he has the potential to knock the ball over one guy and knock it for the goal with his legs.  To me that’s a world-class goal right there at international levels.  There’s so much potential.

Phil:
He’s easily our smallest player yet he is one of our best players, and that shows how Filipinos can really succeed in football.

James :
Imagine what it could be like if he had that world-class coaching.

Phil:
If he had good facilities and good coaching, he could be a great player.

LDS: Is that your vision?  How big will the Academy become?

Phil:
For us it’s about creating many opportunities for kids in football.  In England we were playing 60 to 70 games a year whereas kids here probably have 10 or 15 games.  It’s not enough if you really want to succeed and be good at something.  We try and have as many training sessions and tournaments as possible just to create opportunities for playing because we believe whether you’re talented or not, the more you are exposed to it the better you will become.

LDS: You had a one-day football clinic last February 19. Do you have any more schedules coming up?

Phil:
We want a more regular thing so we’re looking for a home for the Football Academy, somewhere where everyone can be, in the middle of the Philippines where a lot of people can get to.  The clinic was just a short-term activity, but we have long-term plans for the Academy, we want everything to be long-term.  No definite schedules yet but once we have a home for football we can have a schedule where there’s training regularly throughout the whole year.

Read more about our interview with James and Phil Younghusband in the next page.

 

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LDS: You’ve met the parents of the kids you trained.  What can you say about Filipino parents and how they relate to their kids?

Phil:
With the parents, we try to make it as detailed as possible so we actually sit down with the parents before the actual training, explain what the program is about, let them know their kids are safe.  One of the first things we learned is health and safety, and it’s important that the parents are aware that their kids are safe, they won’t be harmed, so we give them all the necessary details.  The parents, mostly they’re scared their kids will get hurt.  

LDS: So they are more protective...?

Phil:
I think they are, so we sit down with parents one by one, we ask them what they’re thinking, and we want them to know what we’re thinking cause we like the feedback, some of them say they’re scared their kids will get sunburned or will get ill if it rains, so it’s important to let them know not to overprotect their kids cause otherwise when they’re on their own, independent, in the real world, they’ll struggle.  It’s important to let the kids express themselves and be who they are.  So we often tell the parents to let the kids be.  Cause once you play in the rain, you may get ill – once- but then afterwards you’ll get used to the rain and you can play in the rain all the time, and same with the sun.

Drinking lots of fluids is important, too.  Health and safety is a big factor when you’re dealing with kids so young.

James:
What we’d also like to introduce as well – you look at where football is around the world – is that there are parents who could coach kids.  I think that’s what we need to introduce here.  If we bring parents into coaching, they’ll also learn about it, they’ll also enjoy it.  That’s one thing we want to bring to the Academy.

 

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