During the off season Doncaster Rovers Academy have been getting in the Euro 2016 spirit and came back from Paris with a trophy of their own.
Our Under 9’s, 10’s and 11’s recently took a trip to Disneyland Paris and whilst the trip was predominantly a social one, our Under 10’s came home winners of their first ever tournament after taking part in the French competition put on by the ESF.Ben Mawson spoke about how fantastic the trip was and how much benefit it could be to the children for their future development in the academy;
“We wanted to take the kids away to Paris so that they could be together outside of football, but the fact that there was a tournament they could play in at the same time was a bonus for us and them," he said.
“There was already a pre-organised tournament that we decided to enter playing teams from England, Holland and France.
“It was a different type of experience because we were playing local teams at grassroot level. There were no academy teams involved so it was a completely different type of football. Our boys play organised fixtures against other academies every week which gives them a certain type of football for their development, it’s not competitive as such, which is why playing against grassroots mentality if so good for them at such a young age.
“When you add all this together it was a really fantastic experience because of the competition they had, playing kids who speak a different language, playing a different type of football, experiencing their different methodology and on top of that they all had a really good three days away.
Each team played 8 games in total with the Under 10’s winning their competition, the Under 11’s finishing runners up and the Under 9’s finishing 4th whilst playing in an age group above themselves.
"The Under 10’s won the competition which was amazing and were presented with their winners trophy and medals at Planet Hollywood in front of everyone.”
With the Under 10 age group winning the tournament, they have now qualified for the Grand Finale which will see them play at St. George’s Park and go up against every other team that has won a competition run by the ESF. The future is bright for Doncaster Rovers!
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