On the right track | La Presse

Ismaël Koné, Moïse Bombito, and to a lesser extent Mathieu Choinière: Quebec produces players that the big clubs of Europe are fighting over, a new phenomenon. Immersion in a development system that has been transformed over the years.

The rise of young Quebec soccer players, and those from North America, among professionals is not a flash in the pan. Columbus Crew coach Wilfried Nancy is well aware of this. According to him, European teams are shopping North American talent for their excellent “value for money.”

They know that scouting in Canadian territory is weaker, but that the caliber of soccer played there is high.

It’s hard to find a better person to analyze the Quebec development system than Wilfried Nancy. Nancy knows all the different levels of Quebec. He started out as a coach at the high school level, in sports studies, at the AAA level, in addition to being technical director of the South Shore Regional Soccer Association. All this before coaching the CF Montreal school team and its main team.

His observation? It is not the players who have improved over the years, but their coaches.

“When I worked with the regional teams on the South Shore, more than ten years ago, there were already some very good players. In terms of talent, I told myself that Quebec had nothing to envy France for,” he says.

“But I thought I was hallucinating: these very good players, they were trained by parents. I couldn’t believe it,” Nancy continues.

Times have changed. Today, all coaches must obtain a diploma. Even those who wish to coach 4-year-olds. To coach a soccer team in Quebec, regardless of the level, a type C license is required. To obtain it, six modules and six days of courses must be followed.

To coach at the youth level, obtaining a type B license, requiring 134 hours of lessons, is mandatory. Want to coach pros? Three hundred hours of training will be required.

So not just anyone can become a coach. To achieve this, you necessarily need to invest yourself, have a passion for teaching and, above all, for football.

Improved supervision

Trained coaches mean structured clubs. The advent of competent coaches has gone hand in hand with the establishment of game structures developed in Quebec.

Canada Soccer, the sport’s governing body, gives regional clubs plenty of leeway to deliver programs tailored to their clientele. For nearly five years, however, guidelines have been in place for children ages 4 to 12.

So, no selection trial should be imposed. All children who want to play can do so.

No closed teams can be formed, which allows for groups to be modified according to each person’s strengths and weaknesses. Exercises should be practiced in a workshop, to ensure the development of different skills.

The goal of these principles? To ensure that all children can develop their skills with personalized support.

Each one has his own path

As players grow, they develop at different levels, both on and off the field. One of Quebec’s strengths is its ability to offer a range of playing levels to players. Some will quickly integrate the professional ranks. Others will opt for the youth level or even a school career.

“The idea is not to sign a professional contract quickly. I know several players who signed a professional contract at 14 or 15 and who no longer existed at 18 or 19,” reports Wilfried Nancy.

“All athletes need a different development structure depending on their profile. I think that’s what we were able to create in Quebec,” adds Soccer Quebec’s development director, Valerio Gazzola.

Montrealer Moïse Bombito, recruited by OGC Nice in France, in Ligue 1, embodies this principle well. At 18, Bombito was far from the pros. He played as a forward with the Aigles du Collège Ahuntsic at the college level. He had to learn his trade at CS Saint-Laurent and CS Saint-Hubert before joining the American university network and being drafted into the MLS.

New models

Development is certainly improving in Quebec, but above all, the number of players is increasing dramatically. In 1995, the province had 91,260. Today, 170,000 Quebecers play soccer, including 139,000 aged 17 and under.

“We see it, young people are taking to soccer,” comments Wilfried Nancy. “They play FIFA on the PlayStation. They talk about the professional leagues. We see it, soccer is starting to become part of the Quebec fibre.”

In their rooms, posters of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are gradually being replaced by those of Ismaël Koné and Moïse Bombito. The Saint-Laurent soccer club is banking heavily on their growing popularity. This summer, Koné and Bombito went to meet some of the club’s young players.

“It makes all the difference,” begins CS Saint-Laurent sports director Rocco Placentino. “It creates magical evenings. The kids, they cried with joy when they saw them sign their jerseys or their shoes.”

Placentino had a great career as a professional, particularly with the Impact. Since he is about the same age as Olivier Occéan and Patrice Bernier, he never idolized Quebec professionals. So he watched players from other countries to dream.

“Being able to give young people this chance that I didn’t have to admire players from their streets, that makes all the difference,” concluded Placentino.

In any case, the progress of young Quebec players is being felt on the national stage. In August, the province’s teams put on a good show at the first Canadian championship of the player development program. In the under-17 category, CS Saint-Laurent triumphed in the boys’ category, while AS Laval reached the final in the girls’ category. And the women’s final in the under-15 category, which ended with a victory for CS Saint-Hubert against Laval, had a very Quebec flavour.