Global Fútbol

Villarreal CF’s youth academy has long held a reputation in the world of football as being one of the very best at producing talented footballers and well-rounded people. This was demonstrated once more at the beginning of March, when the club’s Under-14 side won the 1st LALIGA FC FUTURES U14 International Tournament held in Saudi Arabia.

The work being done at the club’s academy is so impressive that it is also standing out in other sports and outside of Spain’s borders, so much so that a delegation from the Yomiuri Giants, Japan’s most successful baseball team with 22 Japan Series titles, recently paid a visit to the club. Yasuyuki Kataoka, a coach and former player, was accompanied by two other coaches for a visit to Castellón to see Villarreal CF’s facilities and meet various members of staff.

The trip was organised by Yuriko Saeki, a Japanese football coach and author who forms part of Villarreal CF’s Department of Football Administration and Competitions. Having written her second football book about Villarreal CF’s methodology, a book which became like a bible for Japanese coaches, she receives many proposals from stakeholders within the Japanese sports industry.

In recent times, she has offered sessions for coaches and directors, which are called the Villarreal CF Observational Programme for Directors. After putting on these experiences for directors from Japanese football clubs Gamba Osaka and Faggiano Okayama and from baseball team Yokohama DeNA Baystars, she received a proposal from the Yomiuri Giants, one of the most important sporting, social and cultural institutions in the country.

Underlining how important baseball is in Japan and also why clubs want to learn lessons from European football, Yuriko Saeki stated: “Baseball is the leading sport in the country. We are currently world champions and there is a very important market in a business sense. However, this sport has a markedly American character and is quite different to European football. Until now, the concept of training up youngsters didn’t exist, nor did they have the structure of youth teams. That’s because in this culture the way of recruiting players is more so through ‘signing’ them in a ‘draft’.”

She continued: “But, times are changing and now they are forced to train more of their own players from the grassroots level as they are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit players. Villarreal CF is a reference point for the Japanese and a role model in terms of player training and that is why they have taken notice of our club.”

During the visit of the delegation from the Yomiuri Giants, Yuriko Saeki showed the visitors all of the state-of-the-art facilities that Villarreal CF have to offer, such as the Estadio de la Cerámica and José Manuel Llaneza Training Ground, as well as the players’ residence, with all its dormitories, classrooms, study rooms and leisure spaces.

The delegation observed various training sessions and also had the chance to meet members of staff, such as methodology director Luis Arnau and Juvenil A analyst Alejandro Rodríguez. They were even able to sit in on one of the one-to-one meetings held between a coach and a young player to enhance the youngster’s development.

As Yuriko Saeki explained, this type of comprehensive training programme for young players is not the norm in Japanese baseball, but times are changing and the Yomiuri Giants, as the country’s top club, want to be at the forefront.

She explained: “This trio from the Yomiuri Giants have different concepts that aren’t so ‘old school’, and they want to apply the Villarreal CF methodology in the training process of their young players. This year, the Yomiuri Giants created a U-15 category and the coaches showed great interest in learning how Villarreal CF develops ‘autonomous’ players. They don’t understand how kids who are 12, 13, 14 or 15 years old are perfectly capable of thinking for themselves, making decisions during the game. Moreover, they don’t understand that learning based on making mistakes can be much more beneficial.”

The three coaches from the Yomiuri Giants will surely have learned some important lessons from their visit to one of the most successful youth academies in Spain and in Europe. For Villarreal CF, it is an honour and privilege to work with such a prestigious institution from another sport and from a strategic market like Japan. Having the chance to open up the club’s doors and to show how youth development works in European football at this time of change for Japanese baseball teams is very exciting.

Thanks to the experience and connections of Yuriko Saeki, Villarreal CF will continue to embrace this kind of knowledge sharing. In fact, several more events are already organised for the coming months, including a special Villarreal CF Observational Programme for Directors, which will welcome around 30 directors, sponsors and investors from the Japanese sports industry to the club in April.