he was signed up by the club he supported. A Leo who measured one metre 22 centimetres in height (that’s just over four feet), arrived at Ñuls where, three months earlier, Diego Armando Maradona, who was preparing himself for the 1994 World Cup, had played his last game during his brief stay with the Rosario club .
Jorge Valdano (ex-NOB player): [Newell’s] has a very good football school in a city that clearly has an overwhelming connection with football, being in an area that is just one huge football pitch.
Quique Domínguez: I encouraged them to do what they did best and then subtly polished it, that’s how I made my reputation in the schooling of football. I never shouted, or threatened, or scolded, or humiliated, or applied pressure, as my father did with my brothers and me. So if you make a big cock-up, I want you to understand what you have done and not to repeat it, not because you’re frightened, but because you understand what you did wrong.
Gerardo Grighini (ex-junior player with NOB): We had all seven-and eight-year-olds and we played on the seven-a-side pitch and did the usual kids’ training: a bit of speed work, keepy-uppy and technique. But at that time the most important thing was to learn to play the ball with your feet, to domesticate the ball. We trained Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and played Saturday and Sunday.
Quique Domínguez: Yes, we did the typical training sessions aboutpassing and stopping the ball. Once, one of the coaches asked his pupils how many ways of touching the ball a player had. And they answered: ten, fifteen, twelve. Well, there are in fact almost two hundred. You can even stop it with your back. So, now then, how many ways are there of passing the ball? You see, what we were trying to do at the football school is teach the kids all these things: how to pass the ball, how to stop it, how to imagine the play, to be aware that to reach the goal it is not always the best idea to look for a long pass …
Gerardo Grighini: We had fun, above all, because we were a group of friends, we were not at school, or at work, where nobody spoke to each other, no way; we were a group of mates. In fact, I couldn’t wait to get out of school, get something to eat and then go training.
Quique Domínguez: We also showed them situations that could occur in a game. And sometimes we encouraged competition: we showed them what we call here loco (crazy), and what is known at Barcelona as rondo (piggy in the middle), although there were always arguments because no one wanted to go in the middle. Somehow we created an environment that encouraged craftiness, even though, it has to be said, the Argentinians have sometimes gone too far down that road, as was demonstrated by Maradona’s handball goal. But in those games, in practice, you needed cunning.
There are six categories at the Malvinas for kids aged 6 to 12, and even though now they still have some 300 children, it is said that there have been occasions when there were 800 under the control of Newell’s. From these earth pitches (now grass on the pitch one) have come Bielsa, Sensini, Balbo, Batistuta, Valdano, Pochettino, Solari. And this is just one of the schools scattered throughout Argentina. Thousands of youngsters sign up for them, the assured route to the top. But normally, after just a couple of years, here too is where, for many of them, their footballing dreams come to an end .
Jorge Valdano: I left my home and found myself on a football pitch that measured 1,000 square kilometres: a vast plain, interrupted only by the odd cow or an occasional tree, with everything else a football pitch. And a well-fed area, which is also important,because there are other, more deprived, areas where the problem of nutrition does not favour the rise of great footballers.
There is passion, sentiment, hope and frustration in Rosario. And you learn about football, but, above all you gain friends, you understand about the meaning of community, and
Jorge Valdano (ex-NOB player): [Newell’s] has a very good football school in a city that clearly has an overwhelming connection with football, being in an area that is just one huge football pitch.
Quique Domínguez: I encouraged them to do what they did best and then subtly polished it, that’s how I made my reputation in the schooling of football. I never shouted, or threatened, or scolded, or humiliated, or applied pressure, as my father did with my brothers and me. So if you make a big cock-up, I want you to understand what you have done and not to repeat it, not because you’re frightened, but because you understand what you did wrong.
Gerardo Grighini (ex-junior player with NOB): We had all seven-and eight-year-olds and we played on the seven-a-side pitch and did the usual kids’ training: a bit of speed work, keepy-uppy and technique. But at that time the most important thing was to learn to play the ball with your feet, to domesticate the ball. We trained Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and played Saturday and Sunday.
Quique Domínguez: Yes, we did the typical training sessions aboutpassing and stopping the ball. Once, one of the coaches asked his pupils how many ways of touching the ball a player had. And they answered: ten, fifteen, twelve. Well, there are in fact almost two hundred. You can even stop it with your back. So, now then, how many ways are there of passing the ball? You see, what we were trying to do at the football school is teach the kids all these things: how to pass the ball, how to stop it, how to imagine the play, to be aware that to reach the goal it is not always the best idea to look for a long pass …
Gerardo Grighini: We had fun, above all, because we were a group of friends, we were not at school, or at work, where nobody spoke to each other, no way; we were a group of mates. In fact, I couldn’t wait to get out of school, get something to eat and then go training.
Quique Domínguez: We also showed them situations that could occur in a game. And sometimes we encouraged competition: we showed them what we call here loco (crazy), and what is known at Barcelona as rondo (piggy in the middle), although there were always arguments because no one wanted to go in the middle. Somehow we created an environment that encouraged craftiness, even though, it has to be said, the Argentinians have sometimes gone too far down that road, as was demonstrated by Maradona’s handball goal. But in those games, in practice, you needed cunning.
There are six categories at the Malvinas for kids aged 6 to 12, and even though now they still have some 300 children, it is said that there have been occasions when there were 800 under the control of Newell’s. From these earth pitches (now grass on the pitch one) have come Bielsa, Sensini, Balbo, Batistuta, Valdano, Pochettino, Solari. And this is just one of the schools scattered throughout Argentina. Thousands of youngsters sign up for them, the assured route to the top. But normally, after just a couple of years, here too is where, for many of them, their footballing dreams come to an end .
Jorge Valdano: I left my home and found myself on a football pitch that measured 1,000 square kilometres: a vast plain, interrupted only by the odd cow or an occasional tree, with everything else a football pitch. And a well-fed area, which is also important,because there are other, more deprived, areas where the problem of nutrition does not favour the rise of great footballers.
There is passion, sentiment, hope and frustration in Rosario. And you learn about football, but, above all you gain friends, you understand about the meaning of community, and
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