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An football academy for the future Thai stars


The 12 years old football team from the Assumption elite school in Thonburi, near Bangkok, is considered as Thailand's best in its category. That reign ended on a miserable November 2005 day when the young stars with the red and white stripes jersey were sent to an humiliating 6-0 defeat. The winners were a group of 20 merciless barefoot kids who hardly six months before were still kicking worn-out balls on waste grounds in Thai suburbs or under Bangkok's bridges. Yet Min, Bat, Got and their 17 companions showed a great deal of modesty in their victory. "Here, we enjoy playing, there is so much just fun", said Got after the match.

"Here" is the JMG Football Thailand Academy, the "first independent" of its kind in Asia, according to its founders, launched in April 2005 in the Thai countryside near Bang Bung town, a hundred kilometers east of Bangkok. JMG stands for Jean-Marc Guillou, a 60 years old former French international who used to play with Michel Platini and was once considered as one of its generation's best midfielders.

In 1994, Guillou founded the first football academy for youth in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Eleven years later, for the first time in its history, the national Ivory Coast team, whose 75% of the players graduated from the JMG academy, qualified for a world cup. "70 to 80% of our kids became professionals, they play in African or European championships", says Guillou. Quite a few graduates reached stardom in the most prestigious European clubs: Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue (Arsenal), Gilles Yapi Yapo (Nantes), Arthur Boka (Strasbourg), Aruna Dindane (Anderlecht), Didier Zokora (Saint Etienne), ...

Guillou knowledge of Asia was limited to postcard clichés. Africa was his continent. There was Abidjan of course but also Madagascar where he opened an academy in 2001. The idea to launch a similar project in Thailand came out of a meeting with a Bangkok-based Belgian businessman and a football passionate, 46 years old Robert Procureur.

Thailand is a country addicted to football. There is not a soul who does not know about the latest scores of the British Premier League or the amount of Italian football transfers. Emblems, jerseys and cups wearing Manchester United or Real Madrid's effigy sell like fried rice in official stores and, more often, unofficial shops. A lot of money is bet on the number of times Newcastle's strikers will hit Liverpool's posts during their next encounter. Thais watch so much football on television that a local tycoon spends a fortune to have his beer brand name printed on Everton's players jerseys, even though English pubs don't serve that beer ! Still Thai football never managed to make its mark beyond South East Asian borders. In Thailand, following the American model, organized sports are taken over by schools. But there is real follow-up, football authorities tragically lack a long-term strategy. Furthermore, the local championship is only played for six months because of the monsoon. There is no real incentive for the players during the six months interval.

Procureur brought local and foreign investors to the project. "At the beginning, everybody was skeptical", he smiles. "There was the widespread idea that Asians are too small and not physical enough to reach the top level." Guillou brushes those preconceptions aside: "many of the best players are short in size, look at Maradona or Ronaldinho to name a few. Usually small players compensate with a better agility, speed and creativity." He also found out that "in Thailand, there are good facilities, often better than in Europe, and very good technical capacities just waiting to be developed."
Last but not least, Guillou got the official support from his French friend Arsène Wenger, Arsenal coach and co-owner of the Belgian League One club Beveren where most of the players are Ivorians from Abidjan's Academy…

Wenger recently said during an interview at London's Arsenal headquarters that his "support was not about image but was rather motivated by (his) accordance with the humanity and the philosophy of a great project which gives a chance to young players who have a dream." The project's objective, he added, "was also to see if it's true that with the same quality of work, Asian players are as much capable of making a career in Europe where you have a selection of the best players in the world."

Thierry Henry, Arsenal's striker, threw his own support to the project. "In Europe", he said, "sometimes we focus more on how to make good players but we don’t look in how to make them better human beings. I always had respect for Jean-Marc Guillou, he loves the game, and at the end of the day it's just a game."

When they will reach 18 or 19, the best graduates from Thailand will get a chance to play in Europe, notably with Beveren. "The idea", says Procureur, is to make them play first for a modest European club (such as Beveren) where they will be able to develop and improve. Too many young players had their career prematurely interrupted because they were promised the moon by big clubs."

The "Guillou method", according to him "gives priority to the intelligence and to the game." The former French international, who in his own time was considered as a rather intellectual player, believes that "too often, coaches select big and powerful players to the expenses of a quality football. In our academies, we give priority to short and fast games, technique, juggling ... Players are selected for their velocity, their sense of the game, their technical qualities. Physical aptitudes will develop later on."

Christophe Larrouilh, a former French lawyer specialized in sports, Guillou's collaborator in Africa and today main coach in Thailand's academy, adds that "the Thais have a culture of the ball, they caught the spirit of the game, they enjoy it. That has an influence on their technical qualities, they are pretty fast." The technical staff develops those aptitudes with "short training sessions, the kids play bare feet during the first three years to avoid tiredness and injuries. We also draw inspiration from takraw", a kind of volley ball played with the feet and the head and one of the most popular sports in Thailand.
To get familiar with the harshness of international football, from the third year onwards, the academy's students will play in major European under 18 tournaments such as Arsenal (UK) and Rosaie (France).

No effort was spared to accommodate the academy's twenty students. During their seven years studies, they will live in brand new modern facilities. Football pitches, dormitories, showers, changing, game and classrooms, a restaurant and a swimming pool were built in the middle of sugar cane fields. The budget of 95 million Thai Baht (around two million Euro) is divided in equal parts between sponsors and private funds. Half of it still needs to be raised. The academy has requested from the education ministry the permission to organize its own educational programme. In the meantime, the young football apprentices attend a nearby government school where they follow a class à la carte.

Procureur and Larrouilh have viewed 5,000 children aged from 11 to 13 in a dozen Thai cities. In the South, entangled into political and criminal violence, the army has provided a camp to organize the local pre-selection. In April 2005, the 60 best players were invited to Ban Bung where Guillou made the final selection. Many parents came to attend that final day. Hopes were high. "Most of the children come from very poor families", says Procureur. "I'll never insist enough on the social side of the project. We know that not every kid will become a star in Europe, a few will not even become professional in Thailand but at least they will have the benefit of a solid education and that will remain for ever."

Thon and Thong are twin brothers. Neglected by their divorced parents, they were living in a Bangkok wood and cement shanty with their grand parents and a "tribe" of uncles, aunts and cousins. One night, Khun Sumeth, a Thai educator and today academy's assistant coach and interpreter, spotted the twins dribbling and tackling on a parking's gravel. He took them to the selections. Today, the twins are amongst the class best creative players and technicians. "At home, they would probably have turned bad", says Sumeth. "There was a lot of family problems and friends were often luring them to billiard rooms where other youngsters were seen smoking yabaa (a local methamphetamine)". Both are clearly happy with their new life: "here everything is going well, the training, the class and… the toilets", says Thong whose idol is Steven Gerrard and whose dream is to play for Liverpool.

All the young players emphasize the academy's warm atmosphere. "We have a lot of friends here, it's like a family", smiles Bat, adding that although he is "sometimes missing" his parents, he would rather stay here than going back to (his) overcrowded provincial house."

Of course, all of them have the dream to walk in Zidane's footsteps. Still, even though they all say they wish to play one day with the Thai national team, none of them plans to join the Thai championship. "We all want to play in Europe, that's where the best football is", says Koto.

The academy's reputation quickly spread through the kingdom. One day, the staff could not believe its eyes when buses with 200 Thais arrived at the academy from Had Yai, a main Southern city. They were attending a seminar nearby and were easily convinced to visit the facilities by one of them, the father of Don, one of the school's young "Southerners".

In August, four Ivorian boys joined the 16 Thais at the academy. Messi, Koffi, Cyrille and Allassane were part of the 2005 promotion of the Abidjan academy which, for political reasons, could not be open. A common passion for football and the famous Thai hospitality quickly filled the cultural and language gap. "We were warmly welcomed and we loved Thailand right away", says Messi. Here we feel like in Africa… You know, the rice, the chili, the sun… When we arrived we communicated with signs but soon we will be able to talk because we are learning Thai."

On the historical 6-0 victory's evening, the 8 PM curfew was exceptionally extended. The young Ivorians invited their Thai friends to their sleeping room. They play a CD of an Abidjan band on the compact player they have brought from their country. They all danced for a while. That night, the twenty children probably dreamt that one day Thais and Ivorians would meet in a world cup final.