For budding young footballers there can’t be many better opportunities than having the chance to train with a Premier League Champion. Now youngsters in Leicester have that very chance as Leicester City’s Christian Fuchs is launching the Fox Soccer Academy in Leicester.
There’s still plenty of time to get involved as the 8 week course kicks off on 31 October based at Judgemeadow Community College, and the course is aimed at both boys and girls aged 8 to 16.
We caught up with Christian to find out a little more about the Fox Soccer Academy and the benefits that it’ll offer to young players.
One of the main unique factors about the Fox Soccer Academy is that you’ll actually get to train with a Premier League Champion. “When I was a kid I wished that professional players would run camps and training sessions where they were actually involved, not just put their name to it and that’s all. I’ll be there for the training sessions and of course I’m a footballer, when I see a ball I want to go after it and play a little bit so we’ll be having plenty of fun.”
But Christian isn’t the only member of training staff, he works with a very talented and experienced team to bring out the best in all players. “On the team we have people who’ve been coaching professional teams for 20 to 25 years, so it’s a very experienced team that are leading the sessions. We’ve worked together already on the Fox Soccer camps in New York and Austria so we know it works well.”
Leicester is the most recent addition to the Fox Soccer Academy group who already run camps in Austria and New York, which have proved really popular among participants. “We started in New York last summer for just a week and America is not the leading place for football but we had 25 kids taking part and then this year we were there again and we had 85 kids take part, so it’s been great to see that grow.”
“The success of the previous camps isn’t just down to me being involved. The parents have commented on how impressed they’ve been with how professional the sessions are that we run, how we bring the best out of the kids and have fun. The success of that led me to start up the first camp in Austria this summer, where we had more great feedback from the 35 kids who took part.”
One of the key methods that the Fox Soccer Academy implements is called S.A.M. (Study, Apply, Motivate) which was developed by Christian along with coach Heinz Griesmayer. “For us the academy is all about having fun. It’s so important that the kids enjoy what they’re doing when they’re with us, but then we also want to teach them something for their game to improve. SAM stands for Study, Apply, Motivate and it really just sums up our aims in looking for talent out there. Maybe we’ll find a future Christian Fuchs. There’s still so much undiscovered talent out there, even here in the UK where football is the number one sport and scouts are all over the country, some players still don’t get spotted.”
With Christian now a Premier League champion and captain of the Austrian national team he has a whole host of wisdom and experience to impart on the youngsters attending the Fox Soccer Academy and it’s his passion for helping young players that makes this so important to him. “I wish there’d been opportunities like this when I was starting out. Kids who play football either want to improve or have fun, or hopefully both. In the camps in New York and Austria some of the kids came along because it’s a chance to train with me and it’ll be great fun, but a lot of others also came because it’s a real chance to learn from a professional. Either way we hope we’ll be able to help them by coming along and we’ll be sure to have plenty of fun along the way!”
Fox Soccer Academy is for boys and girls ages 8 to 16 with training every Monday evening from 31 October to 19 December. The 8 week course is priced at £96. To sign up or to find out more visit the Fox Soccer Academy website.
