Markus Krösche calls for “elementary rethinking” in youth football

Markus Krösche, sports director of Eintracht Frankfurt and member of the DFL Football Committee, has called for a “fundamental rethinking” of the German professional clubs in the area of ​​youth development. This must “change fundamentally,” said Krösche table football. He also sees the DFB as “demanded”.

“A lot has fallen by the wayside on the part of the clubs,” Krösche explained: “Sometime between 2010 and 2014 (…) we lost focus. The essential thing in the youth is the player – not the team.” In the youth academies, however, “very much attention was paid to results”. This approach “goes in exactly the wrong direction,” he stressed.

The 42-year-old demanded that training should be “much more individual”, and that the youngest should not be “overburdened with tactics and formations”. Instead, it is about topics such as basic techniques and free play. In addition, you have to get talented “as early as possible in the senior area”.

Krösche also asked the clubs to agree on a kind of gentlemen’s agreement to reduce the number of player changes among themselves as early as the youth level. To do this, he proposes territorial protection, as there is in England, “so that NLZ clubs are only allowed to accept players from a certain area up to a certain age. And: we need a salary cap up to the age of 18”, i.e. one salary cap.

Further measures could be an increased and expanded DFL/DFB funding pot for the use of U23 players and a second game right for young first division professionals with a second or third division club. The DFB must also focus on coach development.