Han Burger interview
Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 12:16 am
http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/new ... roos/51516In a rare in-depth interview, national technical director Han Berger speaks to Michael Cockerill about grooming the next generation of coaches, our results at youth level, the state of the AIS, the appointment of Craig Moore as a mentor for young players, the recent comments of former Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek, and much else. Here's the first of the two-part series.
Some interesting points made and some very odd points made.
Very much agree with this. I would love to see more young stars hold out on moving abroad. I feel players like Leckie and Burns would have benefited from another year or two in the HAL.Q. Pim also talks about the A-League, and suggests in the past there were more young Australians in Europe, and that was better for their development. Do you have a different opinion, do you believe it is better for the young boys to stay in the A-League for longer?
A. Yeah, I have a different opinion. There are far too many boys going overseas at the wrong age. The majority go at 16/17/18.
In my opinion, you should either go much earlier, so you can do the whole development pathway in Europe, or you should go later when you are an established A-League player like (Tommy) Oar, (Michael) Zullo or (Adam) Sarota.
Huh?! No other country has young stars play abroad?Q. Which is players graduating to the national team. So getting back to the second part of the question, has that been a failure?
A. To me the biggest disappointment was the Olyroos, and that had to do with another of our specific Australian problems, being the release of the overseas-based players. We have that problem, no-one else has that problem.
If we can't get our stars to come to Australia from Europe why not do what Brazil, Argentina and the Socceroos of the past did and play home games in Europe. Its not like Olyroo games are big earners for the FFA in ticket sales.