Coaches deliver football programme in Cambodia

The Club has delivered football clinics and nutritional workshops to 100 aspiring young players in Phnom Penh, Cambodia as part of a groundbreaking football coaching programme which is delivered in partnership with AIA, our Global Principal Partner.

The youngsters travelled from across the country to attend a series of training sessions taken by two fully-qualified members of our Global Football Development coaching team who are based permanently in Hong Kong.

As part of the programme, which operates across Asia-Pacific, our coaches identify talented players and help to create a pathway for them to progress to a professional level by holding elite training camps at an AIA sports facility in Phuket, Thailand. Twenty-three youngsters from Cambodia have been selected to attend the next elite training camp and will join other talented players from across Asia later this year.

As well as delivering football clinics, our coaches work with players of all levels, nurturing local talent and promoting AIA’s initiative to encourage healthier, longer, better lives. Whilst in Cambodia, Anton Blackwood and Aaron Tilbrook worked with AIA’s specialist doctors and local nurses to give the youngsters, their parents, AIA staff and partners health checks, eyes tests and nutritional workshops.

Before heading back to Hong Kong, our coaches also ran a special football clinic for 50 members of Cambodia Spurs, our Official Supporters’ Club based in Phnom Penh. Anton and Aaron gave the players an insight into the Tottenham Hotspur coaching philosophy, teaching them specific attacking and defending techniques and tactics before finishing off with five-a-side matches.

Anton Blackwood, International Development Manager, said: “It’s always a pleasure, never a chore, coming to Cambodia and we were really impressed with the enthusiasm and talent of the youngsters. We are looking forward to welcoming the 23 budding players to our elite training camp in Phuket and putting them through their paces. It was brilliant spending time with Cambodia Spurs and passing on some of our tips and techniques to them, as well as meeting staff and partners from AIA Cambodia. We hope that they continue to practice healthy habits and we look forward to seeing them again soon.”