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Youth from across Niagara are packing their bags, and their cleats, and heading to Italy for 10 days of eating, sleeping and breathing soccer.
The goal: improve their skills and potentially be scouted for an internship that would allow them to go to school and train in Italy, and hopefully, open doors to a career playing professional soccer.
“They’ll be training twice a day. They’ll get to see a pro game, they’ll go watch the pros train, they won’t be able to escape from soccer,” said Clayton Rosario, coach and owner of Elite Soccer Development, where the students train.
The youth left for Italy on Oct. 6.
Welland’s Nicole Gill has been playing soccer for years. Her dream is to play for — and win — the World Cup with Team Canada.
For the 14-year-old midfielder, this trip is a step towards making that a reality. She’s also proud that her skills have been noticed by people playing and training in Europe.
“It feels really good. It feels like all the training and hard work is paying off because I’m going to play soccer,” she said.
During the summer, scouts and players from Italy attended a soccer camp with around 70 youth from across Niagara Region.
Fourteen of those students, ranging in age from 10 to 17, were selected for the trip, giving the coaches at a soccer training school in Italy the opportunity to further evaluate their skills.
Howard Hynam is a parent of a student traveling to Italy and also the owner of Absolute Soccer Life, a soccer store in St. Catharines.
He says he sees the future of Canadian soccer in this group of students, and is proud of all the work they have done and continue to put in.
“We are not just a bunch of kids playing soccer anymore. We’re a team that’s on the rise in this country,” says Hyman. ““I believe that this generation that’s coming up is going to be the true generation that demonstrates that we are, and really we’ve arrived as a soccer country.”
If a student from the trip were offered a soccer internship in Italy, they would move to the country, train in the sport and attend school eight months of the year.
By the time the student graduates, they would be in a position to receive offers to play soccer professionally.
Regardless of whether any of his students receive an internship offer, Rosario said this trip is just the beginning for the youth who study under him, and he’s excited to continue to see their growth and love for the game of soccer grow.
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