Youth Development: how to pick a future star…

Aad de Mos at Ajax with Jan Molby and Johan Cruyff

Former Ajax and KV Mechelen coach and tactical maestro Aad de Mos was the keynote speaker at the 13th National Coaching Day in Zeist for youth coaches from the pro football world and the amateur top classes.

Is it possible for a youth coach to determine which player will be able to reach the top? De Mos: “No. Impossible. You can spot the football qualities of players, sure, but that’s only part of the set needed to make it to the top. To discover talents from the amateur youth pitches is hard. Very hard. I’ve met one coach in my whole life who had the sixth sense and that was Kees Rijvers.”

Looking back, it’s always easy to say that “you saw it all coming with player so and so”, but you never know. Aas de Mos is professional coach and amateur scout as a hobby. “Robin van Persie…I saw him play when he was eight years old and he was out of this world. Fast, technically skilled and leadership capabilities. He saw the game really good at that age. That’s very rare. But we’ve all seen how easy it was for him at Feyenoord to squander his talents. He was lucky to have been picked up by Wenger and it took Wenger two seasons to prepare the already 20 year old for the top level. Robin was always the cool cat in the youth, but at Feyenoord players like Bosvelt and Van Hooijdonk told him to shut up and carry the water bottles. You have to be able to accept that. Arjen Robben, I saw him at Bedum, when he was eight or nine years old. It was fingerlickin’ good. But we all know how Robben’s physique has almost let him down. At the same time, at Sparta’s youth, there was this extremely clever playmaker. Edwin Olde Riekerink. He had the skills on the square meter of Vanenburg, the vision of Jan Wouters and he could score from all angles. Next thing you know, he goes on to play for Sparta 1 but there Louis van Gaal is the playmaker. They turned Olde Riekerink into a more serving midfielder and he’s never been able to take over Van Gaal’s role as playmaker since.”

“And did you know Marco van Basten was a lucky? When Ajax scouted him at Elinkwijk, Ajax wanted two players. Not Marco. But the other players wanted to be able to car pool with Van Basten’s dad as well, so Ajax decided to give Marco a chance as well. The other two players? No idea where they went…”

No one had the guts to tell Rijvers he was getting too old for this shit…

So, why is it so hard to spot a talent? “It’s not really. There’s some things you can spot. His physical behaviour in the youth. The level of development and learning. But super scout Riemer van der Velde (Heerenveen) refuses to go and see players under the B-team level, because they still change so much. I mean, Kees van Wonderen was on many lists when he was young, but he never grew. He was so tiny. So when he actually got taller and stronger, he was already 18 or 19 years old and forgotten. He made it into Oranje relatively late.”

“It’s almost impossible to predict whether an E-junior will make it. There’s so much happening at that age. When they’re 14 years old, school, girlfriends, agents…all these things can ruin their future. Anything can go wrong, still.”

Using objective criteria could work? “You’re likely to look at things like technical skills, tactical vision, mentality but how can you judge mentality and personality? Do you look at his dribble skills, his passing…do you look at his length, his speed? Or do you pay more attention to his positioning play, his sacrifices, his ball repossession work, the turn around? Does he make the right choices? A player with talent will make better choices than lesser players, that’s for sure.”

“And sometimes, one player doesn’t fit the club’s vision but would perfectly fit elsewhere. Look at Makaay. That’s just not an Ajax player, but he would have fitted perfectly in PSV. Vermeer is a typical Ajax goalie, and Velthuizen isn’t. But Velthuizen is a tremendous talent. At Ajax, they would have sent him away, because he’s more a line goalie with good reflexes, while Vermeer is more the footballing keeper.”

“And then there’s the adaptibility. Piet Keizer once said, when a scout wanted to send a left winger away, that he though the lad would make a great left full back…”

Aad de Mos returns to Kees Rijvers. “Kees once gave me a name of 14 potential top players he had seen in the youth. Nine out of those 14 made it to the top. That’s quite something. It’s easy to say that Afellay is a great player. Anyone can see that. But to recognize that Bakkal or El Ahmadi are good players is harder. They see the game very well, they use the space well and play one-touch football and therefore are not as remarkable as Afellay, but they’re still tremendous players.”

“Cocu was a skilled left winger when he started, but he transformed himself into an all rounder. I don’t think many people saw that in him when he was young. Johan de Kock was a mediocre striker. A bit like Peter Houtman. If the cross was good, Johan would score, but he couldn’t really create much himself. When he was turned into the defender, he got to play for Oranje. Many scouts didn’t see it in Overmars. They said he was only fast. That’s all. Louis van Gaal also recognized the quality of Demy de Zeeuw. Even at Go Ahead Eagles they hadn’t seen what Louis saw. And look at him now.”