Forza Student Accepted into Flamengo Academy in Brazil

11 Oct 2008

by: webmaster

Seven year old Forza student Cristian Coelho has been picked to play for the Flamengo Academy in Reo de Jeneiro, Brazil while living overseas.  He is the youngest player to be training in the U-11 group.   Below is a letter from his father:

It is always a pleasure and joy to hear from you and we were humbled in receiving an e-mail from you. With so many children whom you oversee daily and dedicate your life in instilling your love and passion for the beloved game of soccer, my assumptions (now truly proven incorrect), was that Cristian was now just a fading memory in your books. It is still a dream and vision, from both Neylane and myself, that someday soon Cristian develops under your loving guidance and dedicated determination in making a child's dream come true, which is to play for his country.

Presently, we are living about 6 hours north of Rio de Janeiro, in the tiny state of Espirito Santo. We live in the capital city of Vitoria. Although we are in Brazil, Vitoria is a small city in comparison to the metropolitan centers such as Rio and Sao Paulo. It took Neylane and I about 6 months, along with a half dozen different soccer clubs, to find a training center in which we felt Cristian could maximize his training while I am stationed here working for an American Company. Surprisingly enough, now that we have been living here, I feel that your program is far ahead technically, in the U-9 age group, than Brazil is! It is nearly impossible here to locate a club that has a training program for those U-9 and under. In the Brazilian's mentality, the reason for Brazil's success globally, is that children should only begin to start training seriously from the U-11 on upwards (those younger should only spend time playing and not worrying about fundamentals and skills). I can agree, but only to a point. The world stage is developing faster than ever and Brazil, although still highly regarded and respected, is finding it difficult to remain supreme. Children can still have a lot of fun and yet train seriously.

Initially, it was very difficult for trainers to take us seriously. They felt that Cristian (being American, little for his age and only 7 years old) did not have the technical skill or mental aptitude to compete with other Brazilians his age or older. Since soccer schools here start at the U-11 age group, we continued to insist to give Cristian a test so that they could see for themselves how you and the United States had developed him.  Your vision in that younger children learn better by watching and training with older players and that the older ones have a duty to mentor and be an example to them paid off.  Needless to say, they and everyone who had seen him, were overwhelmingly surprised by his ability and technical skill along with his overall vision of the game.

I am happy to say that Cristian is now on the road to developing the fundamentals of Brazilian style soccer and receiving professional training.  He is the youngest player to be training in the U-11 group with the famous Rio soccer club "Flamengo", at their small, sattelite training school here in Vitoria. He continues to impress his trainers and those that see him play and everyone is seeing first hand what "Forza" and the U.S. is developing.  Although he is the smallest one out there, he rises up to the challenge, without fear, to compete and train with those 3-4 years his elder.  We feel that the experience and training he receives here, will pay huge dividends when we return back to "Forza". He is training 3 times a week and is loving every minute of it. The "Flamengo" school is new and does not have the structure as of yet to hold a friendly international tournament, but the idea is being talked about for the future with "Forza".

We have plans on returning back to Cedar Park, for a few weeks in late January, for vacation and I know that Cristian will be begging for us to let him come train with you and your staff.

Once again, thank you for taking the time out of your busy day in remembering a little boy who looks up to you with pride.

More information about Flamengo can be found at: http://www.flamengo.com.br/site_clube/home_clube.htm