The Green & Gold Soccer Academy's U-16 Boys squad recently returned from a highly succesful player development exposure in Florence, Italy in consort with the OSA Soccer Academy and AFC Fiorentina. The boys won 4 of 5 games against quality opposition that included wins against FC Floria'95s (5-1), Fuceccio (2-0), Lazio (2-1) and Floria'94's (3-1) with the only loss against AFC Fiorentina by the narrowest of margins 0-1.
 

During this eventful tour the boys were treated to sight-seeing trips to Fiesole, Bracciano, Rome and Siena along with Florence. A major highlight of the tour included a tour of Coverciano that is home to the Italian National Team training camps prior to major international World Cup or European Championship qualification games or campaigns. Coverciano is also home to the Italian Soccer Hall of Fame.
 

A further highlight was the opportunity to train at Fiesole-Caldine where all the youth teams of AFC Fiorentina call home for training and competition. The Green & Gold U-16 boys (featuring players born in 1994 and 1995) trained at these outstanding facilities throughout their stay and received coaching sessions delivered by Fiorentina's professional coaches.
 

We are extremely grateful to the OSA Academy and their representatives who made this tour such a memorable and outstanding player development exposure and hope to build on this relationaship in the coming years as they have recently partnered with Benfica (Portugal) and Barcelona (Spain) as well as AFC Fiorentina.
 

A taste of Italy
By Gerry Moddejonge, Edmonton Sun - March 22/2010
 

It doesn’t get any closer to the epicenter of soccer than in Italy over these past four years, as two local boys’ squads will get to find out in person.
 

On separate trips, the Edmonton Internazionale U-14 team and the Green and Gold Academy U-16s will take their game to the next level against international opponents.
 

Edmonton’s Inter U-14s are the only non-professionals playing in the Torneo Daniele Pecci tournament in Bellaria, Italy, April 1-5.
 

“We’re really excited about it,” said parent volunteer Claudio Gonzalez. “These kids have worked quite hard and they’re going to be seeing some heavy-duty talent over in Italy.
 

“When they go over there, they are going to play professional squad academies that have been scouted from basically all of Europe.”
Italian powerhouse
 

Featuring top-level European soccer club academies, the competition has grouped Inter with Italian powerhouse Juventus F.C.’s U-14s, and also features Italian clubs such as Atalanta Calcio, Brescia Calcia and Chievo Verona, along with F.C. Lugano from Switzerland, TuS Koblenz from Germany and F.C. Aldershot from England.
 

The tour will include friendlies against Juventus, Turin and identification camps with Juventus F.C. coaches at the club’s training facilities.
 

“We’ve participated in going on trips before, but it’s just been like a weekend tournament in Saskatoon, kind of thing,” said Gonzalez. “So for them the biggest challenge is this will be the first time away from their parents. We do have some parents coming along as support staff.
 

“We’re almost more excited than they are at this point because they really don’t know what’s coming ahead of them.”
 

While Inter is preparing for their tournament, the Green and Gold U-16s will travel to Florence, Italy, March 25 to April 5, where they will train at Coverciano — home of the reigning World Cup champion Italian national team — as well as FiesoleCaldine, where the A.C. Fiorentina junior teams train.
 

‘Their heartland’
 

“Apparently Florence is their heartland because that’s where the national team has their headquarters,” said academy director and U of A Golden Bears head coach Len Vickery. “They even have like our Hockey Hall of Fame, the Italian Soccer Federation has their Hall of Fame, soccer-wise in Florence.”
 

They have matches lined up against Italy’s premier academy squads of A.C.F. Fiorentina, F.C.G. Floria, A.C. Fucecchio and S.S. Lazio. On March 28, the Green and Gold is invited to a Serie A match between Fiorentina and Udinese, as well as a Lazio-Napoli derby game on April 3 in Rome.
 

“This is the kind of thing we’ve been doing for the last 10 years,” said Vickery, who has travelled with groups to Spain as well as his native England. “It’s easy for me in England because I have some close friends who are part of the professional game ... this is a little bit of a departure by going to Italy.
 

“It will be nice to see another part of the world, but also a slightly different approach to developing young players.”
Former Green and Gold academy members Eddy Sidra and Shaun Saiko have gone on to play professionally in Germany and England, respectively, while a handful of others have been part of the Vancouver Whitecaps residency program.
 

2008
The Green and Gold Soccer Academy U-13 boy’s squad played Real Madrid in the prestigious “Trofeo Dani Guenes” tournament in Spain and came away with the historic 1-0 win. The squad had travelled to the North of Spain (Bilbao-Bizkaia) for the tournament and other games to be played against Spanish “Primera Division” professional club squads from March 18 – April 6, 2008.
 

Trofeo Dani Guenes is one of the top youth competitions in the world and it attracts teams from such giants as Barcelona, Athletico Madrid, Real Madrid, Ajax, Manchester United, Inter Milan and A.C. Milan.
 

In addition, as part of the academy’s International Program a U-15 boys squad travelled to England as part of the International Program for training and games to be played against English Premier League (EPL) professional clubs Everton FC, Bolton Wanderers, Newcastle United, Sunderland FC and Middlesbrough FC academy squads from March 24 - April 6, 2008.
 

The Green and Gold Soccer Academy will once again offer feature club team development and high performance training for youth boys and girls in the spring of 2010.
 

The Green and Gold Soccer Academy – Spring Session and #1 Goalkeeper School will also begin in early April and continues through June. The program will provide 10 high performance training sessions conducted by the academy’s principal coaches. Goalkeepers will be provided with specialized instruction in all aspects of this demanding position.
 

For additional information please contact:
Len Vickery 780-233-4653 len.vickery@ualberta.ca