Author: submit

According to a report by KPMG, the combined enterprise value of the most popular soccer clubs in Europe exceeds $33 billion. The report “Football Clubs’ Valuation: The European Elite 2017” states that the 32 clubs on the list grew by more than 14% in the last year.

English football giants Manchester United lead the list with an enterprise value of more than 3 billion Euros. Second and third on the list fall to Spanish clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona. Amazingly, ten clubs are worth more than a billion euros.

The sport is reaping the benefits of its commercial and television deals:

“While this is partially explained by football’s broadcasting boom, the internationalization of the clubs’ commercial operations, their investment into privately-owned and modern facilities, and overall more sustainable management practices are also key reasons for this growth,” said Andrea Sartori, global head of sports at KPMG

Teams are making smarter choices when it comes to signing commercial sponsorship. It also helps that the English Premier League is a global sport, shown live across the world. This explains why six of the top ten clubs on the list are from the UK. The most recent TV deal awarded in the UK to Sky and BT was worth $6.6 billion.

There are no American clubs on the list, however, with the rapid growth in popularity of the sport, it is only a matter of time before we see an American in the top 10.

In the same way that strength training for soccer involves more than just lifting weights, improving endurance is more than just building an aerobic base. The typical soccer player has very specific endurance needs. According to soccer apparel vendor Umbro, soccer players spend on average 30% of a game walking, 30-40% jogging and at least 25% of the time running. These require very different modes of training to optimize each. Here are the primary principles of endurance training for soccer:

Specific

The training should be sport specific and tailored to each type of movement. For example, soccer players will run, and swimmers will swim. Above that, for each phase of the game, soccer players should optimize for walking, jogging, and running.

Overload

The training sessions should be intense enough to create training effort. Unless the player pushes beyond existing levels, they will not see any benefit from the training. Also, even when they do, they need to keep pushing until they reach a target performance level.

Progression

As per the above, when a player keeps pushing, they will eventually reach a point where it will be their new comfort zone. This is why a training program with a progression built-in. There must be targets, along with new targets for when they pass previous milestones.

Recovery

This is the most important of all. Take enough time to recover from training. The above training programs are tough both physically and mentally. The central nervous system can only take so much of a strain.

Soccer is the most popular sport in the world. The main reason for this popularity, other than the sport itself, is the relatively little equipment that is required to play. At its most basic level, all you need is a ball. However, the skill level required to play can be quite high. Here are the most basic soccer skills a child will need to practice in order to become better at the game:

Dribbling

This is the most basic soccer skill. It is also the first thing that every child should learn. Practice dribbling by arranging pylons and asking the kids to dribble around them. Dribbling is done with the laces of the boots while not kicking the ball.

Passing

Once dribbling is under control and kids have decent ball control, the next step is to learn to pass the ball. It is one of the most important skills. They should learn to pass to teammates and to receive passes. They should use the instep and accurately pass the ball.

Shooting

This is the most popular part of soccer for most kids. The ball should be kicked with the laces of the shoe rather than the toe. Kicking with the toe will result in inaccurate shots. The knee should be over the ball at the point of the strike.

These are three most important soccer skills for any young soccer player. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect, and the more they practice, the better they will get.

Becoming an elite soccer player does not happen overnight. It takes dedication and hard work over several years to build up the skills and mastery required. Younger soccer players will learn the basic skills and movements and will slowly be introduced over the years to more advanced skills. Here we look at the five areas that players will need to master in order to become and elite player.

Ball skills

Young players introduced to the sport at about six to eight years’ old will be introduced to basic ball handling skills. They will progress with more and more complex movements up until around 14 to the 19-year mark, at which point they will need to have mastered ball skills and match application of those skills. Beyond that absolute mastery will need to be achieved and maintained.

Decision-making skills

As with the above, it starts out with basic decision making and combinations and moves on to the more advanced tactics. Ultimately at the highest level complete knowledge of team and opponent tactics will be required. Elite players are always aware of where they are in the game and what the opposition looks to be doing.

Physical training

At the start, it all about fun and getting some general activity in for the younger kids. As they grow older the game becomes more serious and they start to train with advanced aerobic training and glycolytic work. Once they move on to play professionally the training becomes much more position specific and individualized.

Although soccer is the most popular sport in the world, most fans might not know some of the most basic tenets of the sport. In this article, we will cover the most basic soccer concepts.

The field

Although taken for granted, there are rules that govern the size of the soccer field. There is no set size. However, there are minimums and maximums that must be adhered to. This range makes it very likely that most NFL and other stadiums can also be used for soccer. International games require a length of between 110 and 120 yards and a width of between 70 and 80 yards.

The time

Top-level soccer games are 90 minutes long divided into two halves of 45 minutes each. The game ends after stopped age. Some countries refer to this as injury time. In soccer, the clock does not stop for any pause in the game. Any injury or issue that pauses the game is recorded on a separate clock. This time is what is used as stoppage time for the time that was lost. In soccer players do not stop playing until the final whistle is blown.

The cards

In soccer punishment for any on-field offenses are signified by two colored cards. The yellow card is a warning for breaking the rules. Then there is the red card. That is for serious offenses and sends the player off the field immediately. It also means that the team will have to play a man down since there is no replacement for the player sent off. Two yellow cards are the same thing as a red card.

Soccer is a sport that requires walking, jogging and running for long periods of time in a 90-minute game. The off-season is the best time build up the kind of endurance needed for weekly soccer games. Here is a three step process to improving endurance leading up to the season:

Interval training

The fastest way to increase endurance is with interval training. The method here is to do short bursts of all-out effort followed by a short rest period. This should be repeated for a minimum of four minutes. This protocol should be followed only once a week at most.

Endurance training

Building endurance will also take some time on the track of the treadmill. Daily runs will go a long way to building a good base that can be improved by techniques like interval training. The basic math here is that if you ran a mile for five days a week, you could run five miles in a single session. The increase in miles needs to be done slowly to avoid any injury. The recommendation is not to increase distance by more than 10% daily.

Long runs

The long run is a single weekly or monthly run that is several times longer than your daily runs. A two mile daily run should result in a long run distance of about ten miles.  It is probably a good idea to not run the day before and the day after the long run.