The young Bulgarian football talents from the Kids Football Academy, born in 2005, won 35 victories out of 35 games in the Junior Football League 2014/2015. Team head coach Kemal Rashidov told Radio Bulgaria details about its total dominance. What do you try to teach these children and what are your top priorities in your job?

“First and foremost, I try to make each child a good person. I want to see children with good upbringing, strong discipline, spirit and character. These children should never give up, regardless of the difficulties. If children already possess the abovementioned features, we start to develop their football skills such as technique, flair and the rest of the football components”, Mr Rashidov said.

Kids Football Academy is managed by one of Bulgaria’s best football coaches Plamen Markov, who had a brilliant career on the football pitch as well. He was a five-time champion of Bulgaria and a three-time winner of the Bulgarian Football Cup. In 1982 he played at the semifinal of the European Champions Cup. Do children who want to train at the Kids Football Academy go through a special selection?

“We welcome each child who wants to train at our academy, regardless of his football skills. I select 15 children out of a group of 40 for the football team who participate at the tournament. However, I continue to monitor the development of the rest. Those who show progress join the team later. The rest of the kids are sent home. There is real competition in our academy, which makes children show their best”, Kemal Rashidov contends.

Is there a glimmer of hope for Bulgarian football? What is its future?

“Yes there is hope. The children born in 2004 and 2005 are much more skillful, as compared to those who play in the professional league now. Some kids are extremely talented. I hope that they will be given the chance to demonstrate their skills and have successful football careers. The managers should rely on Bulgarian football talents and prefer these children to foreign players”, the football expert pointed out.

State institutions have been warning about the problem regarding child obesity for a very long time. How can this problem be solved?

“If the institutions made any efforts in this direction, we would not see even a single shop selling chips, sodas and other unhealthy food in a radius of one kilometer from each Bulgarian school. We are blind to these problems. Children eat all kinds of junk food and the parents say in excuse that they do not have enough time to feed their children with real food. When the situation is out of control, when a ten or twelve year-old child is overweight, it is very difficult to bring it in shape again.”

The problem is further complicated with the fact that the physical education classes at school are usually formal. That is why most parents rely mainly on sports activities outside school. Why did it happen? Some time ago Bulgaria used to be a country with strong sports traditions.

“We used to have good traditions in sports, when the teaching profession was at a very high level. Unfortunately, this profession is not esteemed highly nowadays. The salaries are very low and the teachers themselves do not make enough efforts in class.”

That is why one of the main purposes of the Kids Football Academy is to welcome all children who want to practice sports. The academy trains their physical and psychological skills, in order to make these kids successful athletes and people later on.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov