Posted on

The third Youth Department Club began training for the 2017/18 season as Head Coach Alon Brumer will remain with Maccabi “Eli Fuchs” Tel Aviv for an additional campaign. The squad will be made up of many new players coming from the two Under-15 sides that will now be combined into one. Leon Asraf will be the assistant coach after spending last season with the Under-17 team while being aided by the Club’s Performance Director Patrick van Leeuwen and Raymond Atteveld who is the Director of the Under-11 through Under-16 teams.

Brumer spoke about the excitement of beginning a brand new season, “It’s always exciting to work with a brand new team and it’s always great to get back onto the pitch and see how the Maccabi youngsters are beginning to grow up especially at this age. We have a big challenge ahead to make sure that they advance and of course it’s always a challenge to combine two clubs into one. This is just the early preparatory stage as we will begin to put together the club and start to head into first gear. I believe that this will be a very good squad, one that the players will enjoy being a part of and where they will work together. With hard work they will be able to move forward both as individuals and as a team.”

Assistant Performance Director Raymond Atteveld who also serves as Director of the Under-11 through Under-16 clubs also spoke about getting back to training: “This is a team that has been combined from the two Under-15 teams. At the end of last season we had already put them together into one side for an international tournament in Vienna. It will be interesting to see how they have prepared over the summer and if they are ready for the opening of training camp. We started off slowly today, however we still demanded the quality that we require to see from them all season long.

The players will be working with a new coaching staff with excellent football knowledge and a tremendous amount of motivation that’s perfect for this age group. At this age we will see how their physique will change from being a child to becoming an adult. Some of them came back from vacation and have grown up as well so we have to be careful about physical injuries since the body isn’t used to the changes just yet. It will be challenging for the players to find their place and work with new coaches. The players have gotten older and the demands will now be increased. They have plenty of time to prepare themselves and take part in the process. There will be plenty of top level competition going forward and they are aware of that. It will be up to them if they want to be part of the team or not. We are here to help them, instruct them and give them advice.”