Usually, the story starts like this…parents search for a sports program for their child, and after some time, they register for one. Let´s say that the chosen one was the ‘beautiful game’ of football.

We can list here a dozen reasons why parents choose a particular sport and especially football. But let´s focus on two of them: Development and Performance.

For pre-school children (aged 3 to 5 year old mark), parents are looking for fun and development. They want their children to develop healthy habits, to explore and grow their love for sports and enjoy the new friendships that are built on the pitch. Those parents want their kids to be happy.

Enjoyable training sessions are crucial to keep this age group engaged. They will discover the world through the lens of football, week by week, always with a big smile during and after the classes. If a child likes what they are doing, they’ll naturally create a strong relationship with football, and we call this passion for the sport.

Of course, during this discovery experience, the child is developing all the major football skills, like passing, dribbling, making moves, shooting to the goal, and going on a path to become a better football player. That’s when the academy and its coaches play a very important part. Identifying children at different levels of development, planning training sessions to be fun, engaging but also challenging them to improve in all aspects of the game. This improvement can be seen during the sessions, but also in friendly games or in tournaments. Children who are progressing well both tactically and technically are basically turning their passion into performance. They want more because they know they can achieve more, and they love this challenge.

At this stage, parents start wondering if their child (around the 8 to 10 year old mark) could become the next Ronaldinho, visualizing the child having a professional career as a football player.

But what about the children who are not top performers, but also see the ball as their best friend? How do you make sure no one gets excluded and everybody experiences the long-term benefits of football? Well, you have to create two different paths.

At Soccer de Brazil we have designed two pathways which will inspire, entertain and educate players at all levels: SDB Academy & SDB Seleção.

At SDB Academy, our programs have the goal to develop all the skills needed to play the sport, like ball control, passing and 1v1 dribbling with killer Brazilian core moves. Cognitive and social skills will follow naturally as part of our methodology contributing to their overall development. This is a place for everyone. The SDB Academy is focused on increasing the confidence of players so that they can play confidently with their friends at school, through their teenage years with their mates, and own lunch time sports in their workplace when they grow up as adults. We want them to see sport as their stress outlet, and building this in them at a young age is important when they hit their tougher teenage years.

Children will then have the opportunity to boost their abilities with futsal, where the TOP professional players like Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar came from. To spice it up even more, Private and Group sessions can be added, allowing the player to fix their weaknesses and master their skills.

That’s when SDB Seleção comes onto the scene. At SDB Seleção, coaches will select the players who are performing the best. Read ‘performing best’ as ‘love for the game’, commitment to training and to the team, and skills. This is not a place for everyone, but everyone can be part of it.

You have got to give your best to belong to the best and play against the best.

In SDB Seleção, the coaches go for the highest level possible:

• challenging the players even harder,
• developing the technical and the tactical aspects of the game,
• shaping a unique style of play,
• combining the individual flair with a modern tactical plan,
• looking for the win and to present the best show on the court or field.

How about you? What are you looking for your children? Development? Performance? Both?

Get in touch and join thousands of players who trust Soccer de Brazil’s methodology, backed by over 10 years of helping local talent succeed and a team of experts dedicated to the players’ development on and off the pitch.

Leandro Mercaldi

Soccer de Brazil / Marketing & Operations