The Ekkono Coaches Academy has partnered with the Sport and Physical Activity Studies Centre (CEEAF) at the Universitat de Vic to develop innovative content focused on physical fitness and injury prevention for football players.
This partnership will provide coaches with the tools and knowledge to develop well-rounded players and reduce the amount of injuries. By combining the Ekkono Coaches Academy deep understanding of football coaching and CEEAF's scientific knowledge of sports science and physical therapy, the joint effort will deliver practical and evidence-based solutions for coaches to enhance player performance and reduce the risk of injuries.
"We are excited to collaborate with CEEAF to elevate the level of physical preparation in football," said Enric Puigdevall, Managing Director at Ekkono Coaches Academy. "By combining our expertise, we will empower coaches to design more effective training sessions that reduce the risk of injuries and improve performance."
Dr. Javier Peña, Director at CEEAF, added, "This partnership aligns perfectly with our mission to advance sports science and physical fitness. By working together with the Ekkono Coaches Academy, we can provide worldwide coaches with the right tools and knowledge make a significant impact on the well-being of football players at all levels."
The new content block will be integrated into the Ekkono Coaches Academy existing education programs, providing coaches with the latest knowledge and tools to optimize player development. This collaboration will ensure that coaches have access to the latest research and best practices in football coaching, including the latest developments in physical fitness training, leading to improved player development and performance.
Erin Ridley, a valued member of the Ekkono Coaches Academy community for years, has made history as the first woman from Major League Soccer to earn the prestigious Elite Formation Coaching License, a collaborative program between Major League Soccer and the French Football Federation.
Currently, Erin serves as the head coach for the San Jose Earthquakes’ U16 Boys team within the MLS NEXT Academy, where she plays a crucial role in shaping young talent and inspiring growth. She values how the Ekkono Method enhances her ability to refine player skills both individually and collectively, which is essential for developing competitive athletes.
In the past, Erin contributed to the creation of the first Ekkono US Coaches Committee, fully integrated by female coaches, to foster soccer development at both the college and professional levels through the Ekkono Method.
Erin Ridley states: "Ekkono has profoundly influenced my understanding and structuring of game methodology, helping me develop a deep comprehension of both individual and collective fundamentals for players. The Ekkono Method provides excellent tools and strategies that I incorporate every day for player development in a high-performance environment."
Keep up the amazing work, Erin!
The Indonesian League (PT Liga Indonesia Baru) has entrusted the Ekkono Method to lead and manage the Elite Pro Academy Future Stars Development Program, whose main objective is to improve the performance of the country’s young players and to educate their coaches on how to properly train the individual development of footballers.
The program will involve the participation of the 18 clubs from Indonesia’s First Division, which, along with Ekkono, will select the three best U-16 players from each team to focus on.
Throughout the season, these 54 players (three from each of the 18 teams) will receive four video analysis reports (IPPP), which will identify areas for improvement and strengths to develop.
Additionally, the 18 Indonesian clubs participating in the program will receive three visits from Ekkono coaches at their facilities. During these visits, the Ekkono coaches will provide coachin education for each club’s coaches, present video analysis reports to the selected players and conduct individualized on-field training sessions with them, and observe the club’s U-16 matches, offering technical feedback and guidance, among other tasks.
Finally, during the last visit to Indonesia, the best player from each team (18 in total) will be selected to travel to Spain for a two-week stay, where they will train with some of the best clubs and academies in the country.
Additionally, a coach from each team will accompany the delegation and will enjoy two weeks of theoretical and practical coaching education delivered by Ekkono in Barcelona.
Bethesda Soccer Club, based in Maryland, is one of the leading youth football organizations in the U.S., known for producing collegiate and professional-level talent. With over 40 years of history, Bethesda is dedicated to providing the highest standard of football education and competition, serving players from U7 to U19.
This partnership with Ekkono Method aims to elevate the club’s player and coach development efforts. Ekkono will provide on-site and online educational opportunities to ensure Bethesda SC coaches receive a comprehensive, 360º approach to the methodology. Additionally, Ekkono will organize diverse activities throughout the season, ensuring that all players have the chance to be trained by an Ekkono Licensed Coach.
This collaboration is set to further enhance Bethesda SC's reputation as a top-tier development program, providing new opportunities for both players and coaches.
IFK Värnamo will begin utilizing the Ekkono PRO Data system this September to maximize the performance of its first men's team.
The Swedish club has acquired a license that includes Individual Player Performance Programs (IPPPs) tailored for first-team players. This advanced video analysis service focuses on individual player development, providing detailed insights and personalized improvement plans. Additionally, the coaching staff will receive regular team performance reports, aimed at identifying areas for improvement and highlighting key strengths to be enhanced.
With this initiative, IFK Värnamo is making a strong commitment to continued growth, ensuring the best possible support for its players and coaching staff.
With the recent arrival of Jimmy Thelin as the new First Team Manager of Aberdeen FC, and driven by the Club’s ambition to consistently challenge for major honours, Aberdeen FC has engaged with Ekkono Soccer Services.
The collaboration will see the provision of support to Aberdeen FC, with Jimmy reunited with Fran Rubio – who he worked with during his successful period at Elfsborg – seconded from Ekkono to Aberdeen FC to be part of the First Team coaching structure, with a specific focus on individual player development and implementation of the game model.
Steven Gunn, Director of Football Aberdeen FC: "Jimmy enjoyed much success through Elfsborg’s collaboration with Ekkono, with their support being a key component of Elfsborg’s positive progress on the pitch. Alongside supporting the execution of the game model, Fran will have a key focus on players within the transition phase between Academy and First Team football, providing focused individual support to our emerging talent and younger First Team players."
Miquel Farrerons, CEO Ekkono Soccer Services: "It is an honour to join forces with such a powerful project at a historic club like Aberdeen FC. We will give our best to achieve the desired results."
Carles Romagosa, Ekkono method co-author, is going to lead this project as FIFA High Performance Specialist in Talent Development Scheme (TDS).
With the aim of helping member associations reach their full potential and ensuring that all talented players are given the chance to develop and be discovered, the scheme seeks to create a sustainable legacy for long-term player development, maximizing the opportunities provided in each participating member association.
This program aims to provide every talent with the opportunity to play for their national teams through a rigorous process of selection, training, and competition. Romagosa will be responsible for advising several federations across the Americas to enhance the long-term competitiveness of their senior national teams. His extensive experience and scientific approach to football training will be crucial in helping these federations identify and develop top talent.
The TDS is designed to help member associations reach their full potential. Currently, 175 member associations have a development plan in place under the scheme, with the main objective being to raise the football standards of their men’s and women’s national teams.
A key focus of the TDS initiative is to invest in academies, with FIFA planning to ensure that 75 of its member associations have at least one high-performance academy or centre of excellence in place by 2027. Additionally, the initiative aims to expand youth tournaments and hold them more regularly. This comprehensive approach ensures that federations have the tools and knowledge needed to foster talent and build strong national teams.
This partnership is a significant step in FIFA's mission to nurture global football talent. Romagosa's, expertise will help federations in the Americas develop stronger, more competitive teams, contributing to the overall growth and success of the sport worldwide.
Nara Club's methodology department, under the leadership of the Ekkono Method, has released its annual report highlighting significant achievements in sporting results and club growth. The department, headed by Darío Rodríguez and supported by the Ekkono Engine team in Barcelona, has successfully established a recognizable club identity and enhanced overall performance.
Below you will find a summary of the most important points discussed in the annual report.
Key Achievements (2021-2023):
Processes Implemented:
New Initiatives for 2024-2025:
Nara Club aims to continue its upward trajectory by consolidating existing processes and incorporating new initiatives to strengthen its identity and community ties.
Mitsuru Hamada, Nara club's president states: “Investing in the long-term development of Nara Club is one of the most important strategic lines. It is precisely for this reason that, in 2021, I decided that if we wanted a strong, stable club with its own identity, it was necessary to develop a methodology department. Three years later, I couldn't be more satisfied with the results achieved, as well as the work carried out by all the club's staff”.
The young promise Elijah Malik Dixon-Bonner, currently playing for English club Queens Park Rangers, joins the list of professional players who trust in the individual program of Ekkono to improve their performance.
Dixon-Bonner began his career with Arsenal joining the club at Under-9 level before moving to Liverpool in 2015. During the following years, he moved through the club's under-16 and under-18 until making his debut with the first team in 2020 at the age of 19.
Furthermore, during his time with the Reds, Dixon-Bonner was also selected for the England National team Under-16s (where he served as captain) and Under-17s.
Following his initial individual program with Ekkono, Dixon states that "The Ekkono individual program has allowed me to deepen my understanding of myself as a player, understand some details, and learn how to perform better."
On the occasion of the start of the 2024 season, HJK Helsinki and Ekkono Soccer Services announce their collaboration agreement. This agreement involves HJK Helsinki's use of a license for the Ekkono Pro Data service.
The service, entirely focused on the performance of the Finnish club's first team, will allocate all its resources to the individual improvement of players, game analysis, and support in scouting processes. In all cases, the focus will be purely technical. In other words, the Ekkono Pro Data service will provide tools, resources, and knowledge so that players, staff, and responsible individuals can make better decisions with the maximum amount of quality information available.
During the preseason, both organizations have dedicated time to testing the service and adapting it to the club's actual needs.
To kick off the 2024 season, an agreement has been formalized between the GIF Sundsvall club and Ekkono Soccer Services consultancy. The aim of this partnership is to provide guidance, with Ekkono deploying one of its certified coaches permanently to the club in addition to the support from Ekkono Engine in Barcelona.
While the primary focus will be on advising the first team, there will also be implementation of certain processes within the academy.
By signing this agreement, GIF Sundsvall gains access to the Ekkono Pro Data service. This entails Ekkono primarily focusing on tasks such as video analysis, performance keys, mentorship for key club personnel, and methodology.
The Ekkono Coaches Academy, an online school for coaches utilizing the Ekkono Method, achieved a 50% increase in membership subscribers in 2023. Founded in 2021 to make the Ekkono Method accessible worldwide, the academy now boasts a community of 25,000 coaches and offers education in four languages: English, Japanese, Chinese, and Polish.
In 2023, the academy's website and blog attracted over 250,000 visits. Furthermore, more than 6,000 coaches participated in the live webinars and courses organized throughout the year.
This impressive growth highlights the academy's dedication to providing high-quality, accessible coaching education globally, using digital platforms to connect and educate soccer coaches everywhere.
After the successful previous season where IF Elfsborg finished in 2nd position in the Allsvenskan League with one of the youngest squads in the league, the Swedish club and Soccer Services Barcelona have agreed to extend the use of the Ekkono Method in their structure for another season.
The primary objective of this agreement is to assist the club in achieving its goals both in terms of the first team's performance and the development of the academy through the Ekkono Method.
In this regard, IF Elfsborg, in collaboration with Ekkono, has commenced preparations for the upcoming season with a training stage in Portugal, where they faced off against various Nordic clubs before kicking off their initial matches in the Svenska Cupen.
Sebastian Jurado, Mexican goalkeeper currently playing for FC Juárez, joins the extensive list of professional players who trust in Ekkono's Individual Player Performance Program (IPPP) to enhance their performance.
After 5 seasons playing for Cruz Azul, where he became champion of Liga MX, Supercopa de la Liga, and the "Campeón the Campeones" tournament, Sebastian, who also won a bronze medal at the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games, joined FC Juarez in the current season.
For several months now, Sebastian Jurado has been receiving guidance from Ekkono through video analysis reports and subsequent feedback, providing him with the necessary support to improve his performance.
As Sebastian states, "The individual advisory program offered by Ekkono is a process that helps me better understand the needs of my position and contributes to improving my performance in every match."
Thus, Sebastian Jurado becomes the third Mexican player, alongside Santiago Naveda and Eric Lira, to trust in Ekkono individual mentoring program.
Julian Marin, Ekkono Licensed Coach currently head coach of Nara Club in the Japanese third division, has been recognized as the best coach of the year following the votes from coaches and players in the category.
After achieving promotion last year, the award acknowledges the outstanding season the club has had, finishing in fifth place and being the division's least conceding team while also being one of the highest-scoring.
Julian, who has been working for the Ekkono Method for more than 10 years, joined the Nara Club three seasons ago after applying the Ekkono Method in the Thai Federation for over 2 years.
Since then, with the support of the entire staff and the Scouting and Methodology departments led by Ekkono, the club has consistently achieved and exceeded its goals, becoming one of the reference clubs in the category.
After receiving the award, Julian stated: "Last year, we were recognized with the Coach of the Year award when we became champions. Without diminishing that recognition, I must admit that this one is particularly special to me. It acknowledges not only our victory but, I believe, the votes we received recognize beyond that 5th position the playing style and all the hard work of the players and staff.
I am very grateful to all my colleagues on the staff in Japan, as well as the Ekkono team that supports us from Barcelona."
Thailand former technical director and cofounder of the Ekkono Method Carles Romagosa, joined 24 other Technical Leaders from around the globe to learn more about Japan’s approach to achieving excellence as part of block two of FIFA’s new Technical Leadership Diploma held in Chiba, Japan, between 4-9 December.
Carles Romagosa explored ‘Kaizen’, the Japanese principle of continuous improvement, during the 6-day workshop that included study visits to Toyota, Sumo Training Stables and the Japanese FA.
Achieving excellence in the areas of Talent ID and Recruitment, Coach Education, National Teams and Quality Assurance was also covered by participants who are undertaking the 18-month long course.
"Immersing myself in the rich mosaic of Japanese culture over nine enlightening days, I have had the pleasure of learning from esteemed peers about achieving excellence in Talent ID and Recruitment, Coach Education, and National Teams. This transformative journey with FIFA has left an indelible mark on my learning process, embracing continuous improvement (Kaizen) as a guiding principle in my pursuit of excellence," says Carles Romagosa
“We were delighted to welcome Carles Romagosa onto block two of our new Technical Leadership Diploma in Japan this week,” says Jamie Houchen, FIFA Head of Technical Leadership.
The FIFA Technical Leadership Diploma aims to become the ‘globally recognized qualification’ for Technical Leaders working in the game and prepares participants for the distinct challenges and opportunities faced by a Technical Leader within a Member Association. Five core domain areas are covered:
Unai Bilbao, central defender playing for Atlético San Luis, joins the extensive list of professional players who trust Ekkono to enhance their performance through individualized coaching program.
After training in the youth teams of Athletic Bilbao and making his debut with the Spanish U17 national team, Unai arrived in the Mexican League in 2018, where he has become a key player for Atlético de San Luis.
After several months of receiving individualized coaching, Unai states, “I have been using Ekkono’s individual coaching program. They analyse me on video, give me qualitative feedback through private sessions and help me to improve day by day”
Eerikkilä Sports & Outdoor Resort, official partner of the Ekkono Method in Finland for over a decade, and Soccer Services Barcelona have reached an agreement to extend their collaboration for another year.
With the extension of the agreement, the Ekkono Method will continue to offer Ekkono Football Camps throughout the year, aiming to develop the understanding of the game and intelligence of young players.
Additionally, the Ekkono Coaching Pathway program will be offered again, open to all coaches in the country. The pathway will be divided into four different levels, covering important topics such as developing understanding of the game, designing the game model, training methodology, team fundamentals, and individual fundamentals by position, among others.
Click on the image to see all information
Antti Kekkonen, director of football services at Eerikkilä, stated, "We are very pleased with the contract extension. We were clear that we wanted to continue our cooperation with Soccer Services Barcelona. The role of Ekkono will be even more important in the future as part of training related to the development of game understanding. The goal is to produce better players, and this goal is favored by the fact that coaches have a better understanding of the game."
"When we started working together over a decade ago, we knew that Eerikkilä was an ideal partner for us and the right place to educate Finnish coaches and players using the Ekkono Method. Our goal with this cooperation is also to promote the development of Finnish football at all levels," said Miquel Farrerons, CEO of Soccer Services Barcelona.
Jimmy Thelin, coach of IF Elfsborg, with whom Ekkono maintains a close personal and professional relationship, has recently been named Coach of the Year in the Allsvenskan (Swedish League), after finishing the season in second place with one of the youngest squad of the league.
Our relationship with Jimmy began several years ago when we first met due to Ekkono Method’s presence in Sweden, where we collaborated with various clubs in the country. Since then, Jimmy and Ekkono have been in constant contact, creating a symbiosis of mutual learning and being part of the development of his game model.
Additionally, Jimmy played a key role in the collaboration agreement between IF Elfsborg and Soccer Services Barcelona, where Ekkono provides him daily support with the analysis of the team's playing style, as well as individual player development.
After a successful season, Jimmy Thelin states: "Ekkono, with its technical support and coaching education, has been an excellent complement and support for my professional career."
Recently, David Hernandez, one of the co-authors of the Ekkono Method, accompanied by Ekkono Licensed Coach Pol Deulonder, made our third trip to Tel Aviv this season as part of our ongoing project with Hapoel Tel Aviv.
During the visit, we took the opportunity to chat with Hapoel Tel Aviv’s staff about game analysis, perceptive skills, and club methodology, as well as carrying on two training sessions with academy teams and watch different club’s matches.
In addition, we also had productive meetings to help the club develop their Methodology department professionally according to the club's principles and identity.
The professional director of the youth department, Assaf Granstein, said: "We have been in close contact with the Ekkono company for several months. This is a very experienced company that works with advanced academies in Europe and various associations around the world. We are very happy about this cooperation, our relationship with them is excellent and I am sure that connecting with them will upgrade us professionally, and help us develop the future players of the club."
Every summer and winter, Ekkono organizes Summer Camps in various countries, giving children the chance to learn how to enhance their intelligence as players.
This summer, over 700 boys and girls participated in the Ekkono Summer Camps, which were held in four different countries.
The Ekkono Summer Camps are primarily designed for U7-U13 players. Here, they are trained in the key universal fundamentals for the initiation stage, such as perception, passing, progressing, support, control, marking, and more, following the Ekkono guidelines. Of these fundamentals, the Ekkono Camps place special emphasis on Perception – crucial for understanding the game and nurturing a player's intelligence.
Additionally, every camp features the "Smartfielder" activity, a theoretical session where players learn about each fundamental through video clips from past training sessions. This unique approach showcases the players' correct and incorrect actions, offering a deeper comprehension of the concepts.
To conclude, each participant of the Ekkono Camps is provided an individual report, analyzing their performance across the various fundamentals covered during the camp. This report acts as a self-assessment tool, aiding their ongoing development as players.
The Spanish National Team was crowned World Champions for the first time in its history after defeating England in the final. From Soccer Services Barcelona, we want to congratulate all members of the team, with a special mention to Irene Paredes, who chose to trust Ekkono to help improving her performance through individualized guidance. We also want to congratulate the other international players who were advised by Ekkono at some point in their careers to improve their performance.
The Spanish national team's defender and current FC Barcelona player played a fundamental role in winning the tournament, being the only Spanish player to have played every possible minute during the World Cup.
A similar case of American midfielder Andi Sullivan, who played all possible minutes with the US national team until being eliminated in the penalty shootout in the round of 16.
Same fate as Nigerian forward Rasheedat Ajibade, who despite her speed and talent, couldn't avoid the Nigerian team's elimination against England in the penalty shootout of the round of 16.
Lastly, the Japanese national team was eliminated in the quarter-finals, despite being the top-performing team in the group stage with a balance of 11 goals scored and 0 conceded in the 3 played matches.
Among the Japanese Team are some of the players we had the pleasure to work directly with during our 3-year collaboration with the Japanese Football Federation, such as Jun Endo (1 goal and 1 assist in the group stage), Miyabi Moriya, Miyake Shiori, and Chika Hirao.
Congratulations to all of them!
After completing the first half of the season, IF Elfsborg tops the league standings, being the team with the least goals conceded and averaging 2.4 goals scored per match. Additionally, several young players, such as Gustaf Lagerbielke and Jeppe Okkels, who are following the Individual Players Performance Program (IPPP), have become crucial in the team's impressive performance.
Furthermore, the club's academy continues to produce young talents, making IF Elfsborg the third-youngest squad in the league, with an average age of 23.5 years.
As a result, IF Elfsborg, with whom we reached a collaboration agreement last season to support them in achieving their first-team performance objectives, is consolidating its position as one of the reference clubs in Swedish football.
Jimmy Thelin, the head coach of the team, states that "Ekkono Method, with their technical support and coaching education, has been a great compliment and support for me in my professional career".
Erik Lira, current defensive midfielder for Cruz Azul and international player for the Mexican national team, joins the list of professional players who trust the Ekkono Method to improve their performance.
At just 23 years old, Erik Lira has become a key player for Cruz Azul, with whom he won the Liga Supercup last season and was included in the ideal eleven of the Apertura Tournament in the 2021 season.
After more than a season following Ekkono's individual advisory program, Erik Lira affirms that: “The Ekkono Individual Performance Program helps me improve my performance and understanding of the game.”
In the 2022-23 season, Thailand has emerged as a leading federation in implementing technical programs with FIFA. Under the leadership of its Technical Director, the co-author of the Ekkono Method Carles Romagosa, the federation has developed programs in various areas of football, demonstrating a commitment to the sport's growth and development. Let's take a closer look at some of the programs that have made Thailand a reference point for other federations:
In conclusion, Thailand's dedication to football development has made it a trailblazer in implementing technical programs with FIFA. The federation's focus on promoting women's football, football for schools, developing elite youth talent, training coach educators, and offering specialized courses for coaches highlights its commitment to the sport's growth at all levels. The federation's efforts to analyze grassroots and amateur football will undoubtedly provide valuable insights to develop targeted programs that will further promote football's growth in Thailand. Overall, Thailand's technical programs offer an excellent example for other federations to follow in developing football and promoting its growth and success.
FIFA’s new Technical Leadership Diploma, which aims to become the “globally recognized qualification” for technical leaders working in the game, has recently been launched in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
For the inaugural edition of the program, FIFA invited to participate to 25 participants from member associations and confederations worldwide, including Carles Romagosa, co-author of the Ekkono Method.
The 18-month course will prepare technical leaders for the distinct challenges and opportunities they face while working within a member association and will cover five core domain areas:
“Currently, there is no single award or accreditation that allows an individual to become a technical leader in a member association. If a member association is looking to hire a technical leader, there is no benchmark for quality. We believe the FIFA Technical Leadership Diploma will become the globally recognized qualification for technical leaders and help produce the very highest quality of graduates to lead football around the world” explained Jamie Houchen, FIFA Head of Technical Leadership.
In early May, Ekkono had the opportunity to travel to China as part of the collaboration between Soccer Services Barcelona and Shandong Taishan FC. During this visit, technical coaching educations were conducted for the coaches and technical staff of the club, as well as some physical education teachers from the Shandong province.
The main objective of these educations was to test a new collaboration model designed to assist and guide schools of the province, in creating a training program for their physical education teachers, with the purpose of improving the teaching of football in a more didactic and enjoyable manner in schools.
Albirex Niigata Singapore, the most awarded club from Singapore, and Soccer Services Barcelona have reached an agreement for the use of the Ekkono Method in order to enhance the identity of the Club by implementing a Methodology Department.
This methodology department will be a centralized hub for knowledge sharing and best practices across the club. This promotes a culture of continuous learning and improvement among the coaching staff and players, which can have a positive impact on the overall performance of the club. In the long run, coaches will become capable of developing and molding the youth into national talents which are good players both on and off the field.
After signing the agreement, Daisuke Korenaga, Albirex Niigata Singapore’s president stated that “The collaboration between Soccer Services Barcelona and Albirex Niigata FC (S) is a promising development for Singapore football and our Centre of Excellence (COE) youth players. The Ekkono methodology has been proven successful in developing young players in Japan and other countries, and the adoption of this method by Albirex Singapore is a positive step towards improving the quality of football in Singapore.”
With the implementation of the Ekkono methodology, we can expect to see improvements in the technical skills and decision-making abilities of our COE players. We hope to create a new generation of players who can compete at the highest level. This will lead to a more competitive and exciting Singapore football scene and may even help to produce future stars of the game.”
Meanwhile, Miquel Farrerons, CEO of Soccer Services Barcelona, highlighted that: “We very excited to kick off this new project with Albirex Niigata Singapore. We are looking forward to meet all the local staff and move forward together.”
Luca de la Torre, current midfielder for Celta de Vigo and the United States national team, is another one of the many professional players that Ekkono advises to improve their performance through individual reports.
Since we started advising Luca in the middle of last season while he was still playing for Heracles Almeno in the Eredivisie league, his performance has been constantly evolving, becoming an undisputed starter for Celta de Vigo.
After more than a year following the Individual Performance Improvement Program (IPPP), Luca de la Torre states the following: "Working with Ekkono has helped me understand who I am as a player and how to improve my performance".
Thus, Luca de la Torre becomes the fourth American professional player with whom Ekkono collaborates to help improve their performance, joining Christian Pulisic (FC Chelsea) Timothy Weah (Lille O.S.C) and Andi Sullivan (Washington Spirit)
Pablo de Olavide University, located in Seville, and Soccer Services Barcelona have come to an agreement to integrate the Ekkono method into the educations provided to their university students.
In this way, students from different programs offered by the university (graduate degrees, masters, etc.) will have the opportunity to learn from the successful trajectory and different proposals of the Ekkono Method.
During the month of May, the CEO of Soccer Services Barcelona will travel to Seville to participate as a speaker in one of the sessions aimed at master's students, being this the first activity agreed upon with the University.
Hapoel Tel Aviv FC, the century-old club and 14-time winner of the Israeli League, has recently announced several key additions to its football operations following the entry of new American owners.
Among these additions, stands out Soccer Services Barcelona, which will serve as a Football Methodology Consultant for the club with the aim of optimizing the development and performance of players, coaches, and the entire academy. The new ownership has valued the experience and knowledge of Soccer Services Barcelona's consultants, as well as the added value of the Ekkono Method processes.
In early March, the CEO of Soccer Services Barcelona traveled to Tel Aviv to begin the technical audit, kicking off this exciting new project. In addition, Nick Hammond (former Sporting Director of Celtic FC and West Bromwich Albion, and more recently Recruitment Consultant for Newcastle FC) and MRKT Insights (a London-based scouting and analytics firm) have also joined the project to boost all areas of the club.
Liran Muchtar CEO of the club states: "[...] We would like to thank our new ownership group for providing these resources to the club during the current ownership transition period and beyond [...]"
Today, International Women's Day, we are proud to announce the news published by FIFA echoing the great work that the Thailand Football Association is doing in recent years to continue promoting women's football in the country.
For several years, the Federation of Thailand has relied on the "FIFA Coach Education Scholarship" through which coaches will receive financial support to cover the costs of their coaching courses. with the aim of increasing the number of female coaches in the country.
"We currently offer scholarship programmes from G to A level as well as a Goalkeeping C course with the intention to develop Thai coaches and the women’s league. With the support of FIFA, we have successfully implemented women’s B and A level programmes,"
"With FIFA’s help, the training of female coaches and administrative staff is being encouraged in order to develop women’s football in Thailand as well as our grassroots, youth and senior leagues. So far these female coaches have shown a high level of competency in terms of coach education, national teams and talent identification. Our main objective is to train these female coaches in the philosophy of our FA and retain talent to ensure we can offer better women’s football programmes in the future." explained Carles Romagosa, co-author of the Ekkono Method and Technical Director at FAT.
Thanks to FAT’s commitment to offering courses specially designed for women, 18 female coaches completed their AFC B Diploma in November 2022. This month, a new group of female coaches will begin working towards their AFC A Diploma.
Thailand FA is also working closely with FIFA’s Women’s Football Division to obtain club licenses at a national level for its women’s league. The FAT aims to take this league to the next level by developing the professionalism of the women’s game both on and off the pitch. Committing to training female coaches is an essential part of this process.
“Thank you for providing our female coaches with the opportunity to advance their careers. I believe that having knowledgeable coach educators who have undergone the necessary training will benefit our players. This will be a key factor in continuously developing our national teams and leagues." said Rumpha Varaveerakul, Head of the Women’s Department at FAT.
The Amazing Academy Yamanashi teams will begin their 5th season, using the Ekkono Method in the coming weeks after finishing the previous season with great sporting achievements.
The U15 team won the League, achieving promotion to the Kanto League, the highest possible category of their age. In addition, they managed to win the Club Kanto Challenge Cup after beating Kashiwa Reysols in the final and in the Club Cup that pitted all the Yamanashi teams against each other.
For its part, the U14 team was promoted to the highest division of Yamanashi Prefecture, which was the fourth consecutive promotion in 2 years. In addition, they won the New Face Cup which pits the best teams in Yamanashi Prefecture.
Finally, the U13 team managed to finish the season in a meritorious second position in the Yamanashi League.
These results are the consequence of the great work done by all the Ekkono coaches involved in the project, as well as the club's staff. During these four seasons, the Methodology Department, led by Ekkono, has focused on carrying out the most important processes within the Ekkono Smart and Ekkono Identity proposals.
Within these processes, it is necessary to emphasize the rigorous content planning work reviewed bimonthly, in which the content is adjusted under the adaptability of the players.
In addition, all the training sessions follow the Ekkono Smart proposal, basing the tasks on real game situations and giving special attention to the perception and understanding of the game.
Finally, it is important to mention the Co-Analysis activities in which the players of the different categories analyze each other, guaranteeing the correct understanding of the game model.
Since Carles Romagosa, co-author of the Ekkono Method, landed in Thailand in June 2019 as the Technical Director of the Thailand Football Association, there have been countless achievements that the Association has been achieving at all levels in terms of Organization. Therefore the great strategic goal of " the FA Thailand becoming recognizable as one of the leading member federations in Asia", is now a reality.
In fact, a month ago we announced the endorsement to the Federation with the "Silver level membership" under the AFC Grassroot Charter, as a sign of recognition of the enormous work that the FA has carried out for the development of grassroots football in the country.
Today it is time to announce the recent “AFC Coaching Convention A level membership” awarded to the FA Thailand by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
According to Patit Suphaphongs, FA Thailand General Secretary, “This is such a big accomplishment and truly a huge step for the FA of Thailand. We have been working tirelessly for a long time to achieve this goal, and it proves that the quality of FA Thailand coach educators and curriculum are equivalent to the AFC and international standards. We will now be able to construct an A license course using Thai coach educators and curriculum, which will eventually produce a great number of quality coaches to help develop Thai football throughout the country.”
On his side, Carles Romagosa affirms that “the new curriculum has been implemented by FA Thailand over the past two years, and the current active approaches will encourage a learning-enhancing atmosphere leading to the enjoyment of football. This method represents a revolutionary change in the way coaches learn and understand football.”
Andi Sullivan, Washington Spirit and United States National Team midfielder, recently joined the long list of professional players to whom Ekkono has advised through individual reports to improve their performance.
At 27 years old, Andi Sullivan has a brilliant track record, both individual and collective, in which the NCAA Championship obtained in 2017, the 3 She Believes Cups (2018, 2020, 2022) and the CONCACAF tournament achieved in 2022 stand out.
After receiving advice from Ekkono, Andi stated the following:
“I really enjoy my work with Ekkono. It was refreshing to have an analysis of my game from a different neutral perspective. They were able to organize film in a way that provided so much feedback and but did so without being overwhelming. Everything fit and flowed together very clearly. They did a fantastic job analyzing, organizing, and explaining their work so it was efficient, easy to understand and applicable. They can definitely help any player continue to improve”
Thus, Andi Sullivan joins the list of professional women players with whom we have the pleasure of collaborating, which includes top players such as Irene Paredes (FC Barcelona), Rasheedat Ajibade (Atletico Madrid), Vero Boquete (AC Fiorentina), Nahikari Garcia (Real Madrid) or Jun Endo (NWSL).
In the past two years, FA Thailand has made monumental efforts in establishing a network of support through government bodies and NGOs to develop grassroots football across the length and breadth of Thailand.
The assessors found FA Thailand to have put a thorough system in place which are anchored not only in monitoring the development and performances of young footballers, but also in training and mentoring volunteers and recruiting regional managers to ensure that members of the grassroots community besides children, i.e., the likes of disabled and veterans, are included in all activities.
Most importantly, FA Thailand’s drive towards curating a curriculum to maximize playing opportunities for children, strongly underlines the AFC’s commitment towards developing grassroots football through mass participation.
The AFC Grassroots panel members were presented with an impressive strategy to restructure grassroots competitions. Following the implementation of U10 and U20 competitions in six regions between 2019 and 2022, the FA is currently working towards increasing the scope of competitions to six additional regions by 2023.
The assessors also noted the steps that FA Thailand is taking in order to uplift women’s football in the country. Besides working towards increasing grassroots competitions for girls, the organization has been actively participating in all activities led by FIFA for developing the game for women, which range from coach education and club licensing programmes to capacity building campaigns.
Furthermore, FA Thailand presented a detailed blueprint of the key pillars that form the foundation of the FA’s grassroots system. Based on the tenets that were highlighted, both assessors agreed that all criteria that are deemed necessary for a Silver level endorsement in the AFC Grassroots Charter were met by the Football Association of Thailand.
With their efforts recognized by the Confederation, FA Thailand will work towards implementing the recommendations made by the assessors in order to apply for the Gold status by 2024.
FA Thailand Technical Director Carles Romagosa said: “We are delighted to have received the silver level in the AFC Grassroots Charter, which brings us one step closer to our long-term goal of attaining the gold level.”
“This collective success is a fundamental stage in raising awareness, putting values into practice, and promoting healthy habits through football activities for all which will be used to strengthen our Grassroots community".
Last week Nara Club finished its second season using the Ekkono Method, both in the first team and in the club's academy with outstanding results.
The first team not only achieved the promotion to J3 but also managed to win the League, finishing the season in first position.
On the other hand, the great work done in the academy also brought excellent results; the U18 team win the league and promote the category, the U15 team winning the league, and the U14 team ending up in promotion positions.
These results are the consequence of many hours of work and effort from all the club's staff, the Ekkono Licensed Coaches based in Nara, and the support of the Ekkono Lab in Barcelona.
During these two seasons, the Methodology Department led by the Ekkono Method has mainly focused on carrying out the most important processes within the Ekkono Pros and Ekkono Identity proposals.
One of the most significant and key processes for achieving great results was the weekly Individualized Player Performance Program (IPPP), through which all players were at their highest level and had constant improvement.
On a collective level, the Ekkono Pros Key Performances was essential to prioritize different game aspects in order to create the strongest and most compact team possible. In addition, the action of establishing the scouting analysis criteria was also indispensable to achieve signing the best players according to what the club was looking for.
Finally, it should also be remarked the incredible daily support offered on field and the technical sessions carried out together with the club's coaches, pursuing the objective of standardizing the game model and training methodology within the academy teams.
Last month, David Hernández, co-founder of the Ekkono method, and Miquel Farrerons, CEO of Soccer Services Barcelona, traveled to the Italian city of Vicenza to participate in the coaching sessions that L.R. Vicenza organizes periodically, addressed for all coaches of the club and its affiliated clubs.
These training sessions with international speakers are one more example of the ambitious project that the historic L.R. Vicenza is carrying out, since the new owners acquired the club with the clear objective of promoting it to Serie A.
During these days, Ekkono Method mainly focused its educations in Perception, and explained in detail what concepts should be trained depending on the age of the players, giving a practical demonstration to all the club's coaches.
After the conclusion of the educations, Ekkono and L.R. Vicenza agreed to extend the collaboration to continue offering regular coaching education to the club's coaches.
Miquel Farrerons states that “It is a pleasure for us to participate in these coaching education sessions. We are convinced that following this line of work, the L.R. Vicenza will achieve all its set goals.”
Francesco Vallone, Technical Director of the L.R. Vicenza, concludes that “It was a privilege to have David and Miquel with us. Our coaches leant about training methodology. It will help our players to better interpret spaces and time. I am sure that all concepts exhibited have created a lot of curiosity to our coaches. All our coaches have been really enthusiastic about the approach of our guests. A big thank you for this contribution.”
Ekkono continues advancing in its involvement in women’s football by collaborating with Pohjanmaa Football Academy, with whom will jointly organize Ekkono Football Camps in the Ostrobothnian area of Finland, addressed to U10-U12 girls.
Pohjanmaan
jalkapalloakatemia (PJA) was founded in 2021 to offer possibilities for enthusiastic
young girls to develop their skills with other highly motivated players. The
academy founders have vast coaching experience with girls aged between 6-15
years old and have seen the obstacles preventing the talented youngsters from
fulfilling their potential as football players. PJA exists to give young football
enthusiasts great learning possibilities with world class coaching and a
challenging environment to improve their football skills.
The 1st Camp, held in Kokkola this last weekend, was a huge success having
sold out in a few days. The next planned camps’ dates will be 9th to 11th of
December, 14th to 16th of April 2023 and 12th of August to 14th of August 2023.
According to Mika Filander, Pohjanmaa Football Academy’s director, “There were a few options how to continue with the growth of the academy, but the option #1 was quite clear. The key people of the academy had good experience of the Ekkono Method in the past. And then the idea started to take form. Now we have a solid plan in place to do long-term development work with the Ekkono Method. There will be 4 camps during the first year. We plan to do the development work with the girls and also with the coaches from various teams to also inspire them in their regular training sessions.”
On the other hand, Miquel Farrerons, CEO of Soccer Services Barcelona states: “Since the first time we met, we realized that PJA was the best partner to work with in the development of youth women’s football in Finland. Their commitment and huge effort are indisputable. We are sure that this collaboration will be a great success and hopefully extended for many years”.
More information about Pohjanmaa Football Academy: https://www.pjary.fi/ (only in Finnish)
The Polish Football Association (PZPN) has relied on the Ekkono Method to be one of the main instructors during the 1st edition of the course aimed at Polish football analysts, which will start in early 2023.
Specifically, Ekkono will focus on explaining in detail what are the main criteria for performing an optimal video analysis of both a specific player and a team.
As Paweł Grycmann, educational director of the PZPN says: “We are introducing highly knowledgeable specialists in our courses to support UEFA-licensed coaches in our country. Each course provides participants with new tools and the most up-to-date knowledge in the broadly understood training process. "
Registration for the course will be open until the end of November and all coaches with at least a valid UEFA B license can participate. The number of places is limited, so if you want more information, do not hesitate to contact us: hello@soccerservices.net
This program, which has already been successfully implemented by Ekkono at Paris Saint Germain, consists of HJK’s first team, B team and U-18 team players “accompaniment” to young player from the academy to instill in them the importance of club’s values.
To do so, the "Big brother" will attend the practices of their "younger brothers", analyze their matches, spend free time together and help to jointly create habits that allow them to experience and positively assimilate the Ambition.
This committee, which is expected to last over time, is led by Sanna Malaska, the head coach of the 2009 Academy for Girls, who also works at HJK as the responsible instructor of the afternoon club.
“I'm really excited about this project. I believe that this will enable us to significantly increase club unity. We will start cautiously with five pairs, but in the future, we can hopefully increase the number of participants” Malaska expresses.
PARTICIPANTS:
For several years now, Ekkono has been getting involved and showing its commitment to women's soccer by carrying out different activities in different parts of the world.
This summer, after several years with the participation of a significant number of girl players in our Camps in Eerikkilä (Finland) and carrying on several clinics with women's teams in the country, we decided to hold our first Ekkono Camp exclusively for girls.
The Camp, held in the incredible facilities of our partner Eerikkilä Sport & Outdoor Resort, had a wonderful reception with the participation of dozens of girls from different regions of Finland, who enjoyed the training sessions led by Ekkono, as well as the rest of the educational activities.
As we explained in a previous news articles, since we began collaborating with the Japanese Football Association in 2012 to develop a training methodology program for both male and female high-performance centers throughout the country, we have been developing many projects related to women's football.
Some great examples of our work in women's football are the collaborations with clubs/federations, such as Universidad Católica de Chile or Thailand FA, to educate and support their women’s football structure, or the individual advice programs carried out with some great professional players such as Vero Boquete, Irene Paredes, Rasheedat Ajibade or Nahikari Garcia, among others.
Art and football have had little to do with each other throughout history. But maybe one of the ideas that brings them closer is social transformation. We humbly wish to contribute to this current.
Our proposal is to organize the annual ART AND FOOTBALL CREATION AWARD · EKKONO for artists who want to carry out a mural linking football and criticism, reflection or social action.
You can find all the information to participate here:
- Competition Rules (only in Spanish)
- Images
- Blueprints
For more information contact Sandra March:
sandra@sandramarch.com
Quality stamp that certifies that the call complies
with good practices in terms of working conditions for artists.
COMPETITION CLOSED:
- Resolution
During the month of July, we have had the pleasure of advising Rasheedat Ajibade (Rash), a 22-year-old Nigerian forward currently playing for Atletico de Madrid, in order to improve her performance during the Africa Cup of Nations.
Despite her youth, Rash was proclaimed champion of the African Cup in 2018 in addition to winning the Spanish Super Cup with Atletico Madrid in 2021. Currently, Rash is a referent in African women's football, being nominated for best player in Africa.
Since we met together at the beginning of July, we have carried out two main advisory actions with Rash during the month of competition: before the African Cup begins, we presented her a report in which we analyzed her 2 most recent performances with the Nigerian national team, and we helped her to understand the most important fundamentals to be strengthen/improved in the positions in which she most often plays with Nigeria.
Later, once Nigeria was qualified for the knockout stage, we made a new follow-up report analyzing the 3 matches of the group stage and giving her some recommendations to improve her performance on upcoming matches.
Despite being eliminated on penalties in the semi-finals, Rash finished the tournament as top scorer of the tournament and was included in the Africa Cup of Nations best 11.
Thus, Rash joins the list of professional women players with whom we have the pleasure of collaborate, which includes top players such as Irene Paredes (FC Barcelona), Vero Boquete (AC Fiorentina), Nahikari Garcia (Real Madrid) or Jun Endo (NWSL).
After five years of collaboration between Ekkono Method and the Football Association of Thailand, on last June 29th the National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) together with the Football Association of Thailand held a press conference to launch the project “Grow Together! A new beginning for Thai football towards sustainability”, designed and presented by Technical Director Carles Romagosa.
This historic collaboration, opens a new chapter for Thai football to be sustainable with the project “Grow Together!” and to allow Thai youths across the country to grow up to be professional footballers under FIFA standards.
Arsene Wenger, head of football development at FIFA, and former Arsenal manager which is the originator of the program states “Congratulations and welcomed Thailand to the Talent Development Scheme. We are very pleased to help you in this project. The Thailand FA, with the support of the Government will have a huge work to do from grassroots to National Team to develop talent all over Thailand, but we are sure and confident that together with our expertise and material support will develop this Talent Development Scheme. Personally, I’m very keen to see how well will do together”.
For the third consecutive season, we are carrying out a "Co-Analysis" activity at the Amazing Academy Methodology Department, in which all the academy players participate. This activity, which is included in the Ekkono Identity Co-Learning pillar, pursues the objective of improving players' understanding and ability to analyze the game.
Co-Learning is one of the four pillars on which the Ekkono Method is based to create or enhance an identity, and it consists of decentralizing teaching processes to accelerate learning processes.
During the "Co-Analysis" activity, players from one category (A) analyze different aspects of the game from players from another category of the academy (B). These aspects are previously defined by the Director of Methodology, taking into account the level of knowledge and the age of the players. After the analysis, players A provide feedback to players A on how many good actions they performed and how also on the number of actions to improve in the analyzed aspect of the game.
Therefore, the process of the “Co-Analysis” activity is as follows:
After the activity, several players from the academy stated the following: ”The Co-Analysis activity is of great help to us since, on the one hand, it allows us to improve our ability to analyze the game, and on the other hand , helps us improve as a player by receiving an external opinion on our performance from a teammate”.
Over the past months, Ekkono has continued to focus on women’s football development, by starting the US Coaches Committee in coordination with Erin Ridley (San Jose Earthquakes & USWNT U17).
The US Coaches Committee is fully integrated by female American coaches who are coaching at some of the best Division I colleges of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and also at the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) level.
The objective of this committee is to contribute to soccer development at the college level with the introduction of the Ekkono Method. The committee is also an opportunity to generate discussion about game models or training styles, and the specificities that can be found when coaching in the US.
This month, a series of two sessions about FC Barcelona Femení team were held. In the sessions, led by an Ekkono Licensed Coach, Barcelona’s game style was firstly analyzed and afterward discussed, with special focus in the offensive phase.
Erin Ridley states that “It’s an exciting honor to see Ekkono collaborating with top female coaches here in the United States. The ideas and principles that Ekkono presents creates robust conversations for coaches working with smart players who are hungry to add greater detail to their understanding of the game. I think that coaches in the women’s college game find a lot of value in engaging with this, and I hope it continues to grow and have more coaches join the conversation.”
The Swedish club IF Elfsborg, 6 times champion of the Swedish league and 2 times winner of the UEFA Intertoto among others, has recently announced its collaboration agreement with Soccer Services Barcelona to expand the use of the Ekkono Method within its structure.
The main objective of this agreement is to help the club achieve its objectives both in terms of the performance of the first team and the development of the academy.
After the signing of the agreement, Stefan Andreasson, manager of IF Elfsborg, stated that “we have been working with Soccer Services sporadically for some time, but the continuous work that will be carried out from now on will be unique. Soccer Services will complement IF Elfsborg's work in the areas where we believe it can add best value. We are very proud to start this collaboration and we look forward to working together.”
For his part, Miquel Farrerons, CEO of Soccer Services Barcelona, concluded the following: “We are well aware of IF Elfsborg's current achievements and ambitions. The project of this club is unique and has been consolidated year after year. There is already a 'dream team' of people leading the organization. For this reason, we are convinced that through the Ekkono method we can help the club continue to grow”.
Carl Starfelt, the 26-year-old Swedish center back and recent champion of the Scottish Premiership, is one of the many professional players to whom Ekkono advises through individual reports to improve their performance.
Our relationship with Carl started when in 2018 when he moved from IF Brommapojkarna to IFK Göteborg. Within our framework of collaboration with IFK Göteborg, Carl was selected as one of the 1st team’s players that would follow the Individual Players Performance Plan (IPPP) carried out by Ekkono.
After one and a half seasons in which he showed a great improvement in his performance, Carl was transferred to Rubin Kazan, where he played for 2 seasons and became indisputable, making his debut with the Swedish National Team.
In July 2021, he signed for Celtic Glasgow for a 5-million-euro transfer fee, thus becoming one of the most expensive signings in the history of the Scottish team, where he recently won the Scottish Premiership.
After over 4 seasons advising Carl and offering a tactical guidance to the player, Carl Starfelt states that:
“The Ekkono Method has helped me to gain a better tactical understanding of my position, as well as to identify details that I need to improve in my game in order to become a better player and take the next step in my career”.
Last Friday David Hernández, co-founder of the Ekkono method, traveled to the French city of Mulhouse to offer a technical speech to the historic FC Mulhouse, the second oldest club in France, founded in 1893.
Under the title "The creation of a curriculum for the initiation and specialization stage", the lecture had a great reception, with the attendance not only of coaches from FC Mulhouse, but also from the French Football Federation and clubs from the surroundings.
During the lecture, the planning of content to be carried out during the initiation (U7-U13) and specialization (U14-U18) stages was discussed, examples of content blocks that should exist in such planning were shown, and the best way to organized these blocks and the importance of each of them depending on the objectives of the club were explained.
The 3rd edition of the U23 AFF Championship, which hosted the best teams from all over Southeast Asia, took place between February 14th and 26th in Cambodia.
With their sights set on preparation for the U20 Asian Championship being held in 2023 and whose qualifying matches begin in September of this year, the Thai National Team decided to participate in the AFF Championship U23 with a very young team. 26 of the 28 selected players were under 20 years old, with the squad selected for the final match averaging an age of 17.9 years.
Nevertheless, the same players who will compete in the qualifying matches for the U20 Asian Championship accumulated playing time together, gained experience and internalized the game model and tactics proposed by Ekkono, with the aim of reaching the Asian Championship as prepared as possible.
Despite the vast difference in age, the Thai National Team showed a great performance throughout the tournament, both collectively, achieving a meritorious classification for the final, and individually, with the 19-year-old Thai Teerasak Poephimaicon being the top scorer in the tournament despite not being able to play the final due to COVID19.
Ultimately, Vietnam was the winner of the AFF Championship U23 after beating the Thai National Team in the final by 1 goal to 0.
After the conclusion of the AFF Championship U23, the Football Association of Thailand continues to develop the youth categories. Now, it is the U17 National Team's turn, which is starting a training camp with the objective of preparing for the next competition.
Over the past few years, at the Ekkono Method we have been developing women's football worldwide and actively involved in many initiatives, thus giving it the value it deserves.
Our first steps in professional women's football date back to 2012 when, during our collaboration with the Japanese Federation (JFA), we developed a training methodology program for JFA's high-performance centers for both men and women.
Since then, many of the players with whom we work directly have managed to make the leap to professional football, such as the U20 World Cup champions Hannah Stambaugh, Endo Jun and Miyu Takahira.
Other professional players we have the pleasure of working with are the well-known Irene Paredes and Vero Boquete among others, who have been participating in advisory programs for the last 3 seasons.
Some other clear examples of our relationship with women's football are the continuous technical support and advice offered to the Thai Football Association in the development of women's football at all levels (including the national and senior teams), the methodological coaching education given to the women's team coaches at the Universidad Católica de Chile, or the creation of the "Women's Football Analysis Committee" with the objective of analyzing, together with a group of female players/coaches/professionals, different competitions in order to understand the needs of the game.
For this reason, in order to continue enriching this strategic line, at Ekkono we are starting a worldwide selection process to give the opportunity to female coaches from all over the world to join them and work on the development of future projects.
If you are interested or know someone who might be, please contact us by sending your CV to the following email: hello@soccerservices.net
The Ekkono Method and Japan have always had a special connection since we first visit the country more than 15 years ago, when we carried out the first Ekkono Camp in the country. It was a bit later, on April 2014 when after a year collaborating together with JFA (Japanase Football Association) we decided to open our own Ekkono Academy in Japan.
Nowadays, Ekkono counts with two football academies in the two biggest cities of Japan: Tokyo and Osaka. Both academies put into practice the Ekkono Smart Method, in order to help the more than 220 players attending the academies, to learn all about individual fundamentals of football while they have fun.
The academies divide the training sessions into three age groups (U10, U11 and U12), and 6 different contents are taught to each group during the season. However, there is one fundamental which is worked in every training session and in which Ekkono put all the focus: Perception.
Perception is an essential part of the decision-making process and one of the four pillars of the Ekkono Smart Method. Therefore, enhancing players' perception skills will help them to understand better the game, take better decisions and improve on the other fundamentals.
On the other hand, Ekkono Academies offers to all its players the chance to show up their skills in a competition scenario since the two academies take part in different competitions all over the country. Moreover, twice a year, a selection of players for both academies travel to Spain to compete with best clubs of the world in U10 & U12 International Tournaments.
Find more about the academies (in Japanese)
In early December, the Football Association of Thailand (together with its technical director, Carles Romagosa), visited the FIFA headquarters in Zurich (Switzerland) together with officials from the Thai government.
The reason for the invitation, was none other than to analyze the conclusions and validate the analysis carried out by FIFA on Thai football, as part of the “Global Report on Talent Development” plan.
The report, which was developed over a period of twelve months by FIFA specialists, is based on the collection of data on the structure and resources used by the Thai Football Association for the development of young players.
The main conclusion of the report is that FIFA, together with the vital participation of the Thai Government, will support the Football Association of Thailand in the implementation of the plan over the next few years, with the main objective of continuing to promote the development of the country, using football as a transformational tool.
Last October, we presented to Albirex Niigata’s directors a new report in which we summarized the progress of all the processes carried out by the Methodology Department during the current season.
It should be highlighted that all the processes started and implemented during the 2021 season, seek to meet the following 8 main objectives of the Methodology Department:
To know every detail of each process carried out, you can download the full report from the following links:
After an excellent reception of the 3-hours online seminar “The Ekkono Method: how to create intelligent players?” in which almost 400 coaches participated, last week more than 50 coaches from different professional clubs successfully completed the first block of the Ekkono Coaching Pathway’s Level 2.
Ekkono Coaching Pathway is an onsite educational program offered together with Eerikkilä Sports Institute and consisting of over 275 hours, open to all coaches and clubs interested in being educated together with the Ekkono Method.
The program is divided into 4 different levels, each of which needs to be completed before accessing the following level. Each level contains different courses, in which important topics such as Creation of a Game Model, Generation of Club Identity, Training Methodology, Team Fundamentals or Individual Fundamentals by Position will be taught, among others.
Ekkono Coaching Pathway ’s Level 1 is organized online and free of charge, while Levels 2 to 4 will be held in person at Eerikkilä Sport Institute (Finland), and will mix theoretical and practical sessions.
On the next video Antti Kekkonen, from Eerikkilä Sports Institute, explains in detail the Ekkono Coaching Pathway (in Finnish)
Last September, we started the “Mirror Training” activity at the Nara Club Methodology Department, a Co-Learning activity addressed to all club's coaches.
Co-Learning, one of the four pillars on which the Ekkono Method is based to create or enhance club identity, consists in decentralizing the teaching processes to accelerate the learning processes.
The “Mirror Training” activity is carried out in pairs of coaches, in which Coach A prepares and explains to Coach B a training task, and B carries it out with his team under the supervision and subsequent feedback from Coach A. Subsequently, roles will be swapped.
Therefore the "Mirror Training" process is as follows:
Therefore, through the “Mirror Training” activity we will get the coaches to work together and be able to capture ideas from other coaches, increasing cohesion within the club.
Taka, assistant coach in Nara Club U18 team, says: “Mirror training is a really good tool to grow as a coach. I can learn the ideas about the rules, limits and the concepts from the other coaches and it’s totally different from me "
The Australian Adelaide University Soccer Club, founded in 1936, has recently announced its partnership with us to support its coaching education department by the use of the Ekkono Method.
During this collaboration, we will help educate all academy and first team coaches about some of the most important aspects, such as: Training Methodology (going from Initiation stage to Specialization stage and to High Performance stage), Planning, Physical Fitness and Game Analysis, as well as go in-depth into Individual Fundamentals per Position.
In addition, a yearly access to the Ekkono Coaches Academy (our virtual campus where coaches will find plenty of quality content) will be given to AUSC’s coaches in order to keep on learning from the Ekkono Method.
Miquel Farrerons, Soccer Services Barcelona CEO: "We are very excited to kick off this long-term relationship with Adelaide University and its football club. We will do our best to help Adelaide Uni in achieving its sportive and educational objectives"
Michael Matricciani, AUSC Senior Men’s Coach & Junior Boys Technical Director, speaks further about “what a great opportunity this new partnership is for all of our members and coaches”, on the next video:
Last June, Oya Mizuki and Takano Shuya, both from Albirex Niigata’s U18 team, had the pleasure of debuting with Albirex Niigata’s first team during an official match.
The debut was made during the first round of the Emperor's Cup played against Zweigen Kanazawa and ended with a 4-1 result in favor of Albirex Niigata.
This great news gains even more weight taking into account that it has been 3 years since a player from the Albirex Niigata Academy made his debut with the first team. A fact that shows the high level that an U18 player must have to be able to compete in the J-League.
Since we reached an agreement in early 2019 with Albirex Niigata to use the Ekkono Identity method in their academy through the creation of the Methodology Department, we have prepared and presented to Oya Mizuki and Takano Shuya a total of 9 individualized reports that served to improve their performance and enhance their strengths.
From Ekkono we would like to congratulate both players and the club for this great news which reflects the great job that the entity does both in improving its academy and in building club identity.
Finally, we would like to show our special thanks to Uchida Jun (Academy Director), who not only coached both players in the past, but as Academy Director he perfectly takes care of the structure of the Academy and helps the Methodology Department carrying out all established processes, and to Irie Toru (U18 team Head Coach) for the great work he is doing with the players on his squad.
After making history by winning the first French League for Paris Saint Germain Féminines, the central defender Irene Paredes has recently signed for FC Barcelona, current winners of the 2020/2021 UEFA Women's Champions League.
Irene is, along with other distinguished players such as Veronica Boquete (AC Milan) or Nahikari Garcia (Real Madrid FC), one of the world-class players whom we have the pleasure of advising in order to help them grow and improve as professional players.
Since mid-2019, when we started working with the current captain of the Spanish National Team, we have designed a specific individual advising program for her, that we have been following for the last two seasons.
To do so, we designed a specific Individual Player Performance Program (IPPP) for Irene. We analysed different games she played, in order to identify different aspects to be perfected such as the positioning in the build-up phase, the type of passes which generate greater advantage, and the understanding of when to maintain or break the balance from the defensive line.
During these last two seasons which she has been following the advisory program, the former captain of PSG, has become one of the best central defenders in the world, being included by UEFA among the best 50 footballers of the year.
After receiving the presentation of 5 individual reports in recent months, Irene Paredes states that:
"The Ekkono method has helped me interpret the game better and make better decisions"
Last June 1, the periodic technical discussion held between the Albirex Niigata Methodology Director and the Academy coaches had a special guest: Carles Romagosa, technical director of Thailand FA and co-author of the Ekkono Method.
The main topic of the discussion was “How to help young footballers to be professionals?” and it was attended by both the academy coaches and women's team coaches, who showed big interest and asked some great questions.
During the session, Carles remembered all good memories he has after his almost 10 visits to Japan where he worked with players and coaches, and highlighted the huge leap in quality that Japanese youth and professional football has recently taken.
Uchida Jun, Albirex Niigata’s Academy Director said: “We would like to express our sincere appreciation to Ekkono for providing us with this education opportunity. I strongly believe that being a good leader is essential to develop good players, and this is why we use technical discussions as a “learning place” to continue learning."
On the next lines, you can find some of the questions that Carles answered during the session:
Question: When deciding how many minutes of game to give players in official competitions, what is the balance between competing and learning in the U18 category?
Answer: In the Youth category it is important to give all players opportunities, but as we are in the pre-professional football stage, it is also important to make future players play for longer.
Question: Broadly speaking, which different concepts do you have to train in Junior, Junior Youth and Youth categories?
Answer: Players understand the game differently based on their age. Therefore, we must train different things according to their age. In Junior category it is important to train concepts more related with the player’s relationship with the ball, in Junior Youth category the concepts which should be trained are those that help the players to manage the spaces so that the possessor and non-possessors have an advantage, and in Youth category, collective fundamentals are essential to be understood.
Question: Based on your experience training and scouting young talents, which types of young players are the most likely to be professionals?
Answer: In general, among the most talented players, the ones who are most likely to be professionals are those who pay attention to the small details. This means that you need talent, plus effort in training, plus taking care of the external aspects of training. From club’s vison, it is important that we also guide families to educate them in those external aspects that are important for the player.
Question: What percentage of freedom in the game should be given to U12 players?
Answer: A very important aspect in these ages is having fun. It is important not to confuse fun with giving freedom to play as the players want, because talented players have the most fun when the team plays well, not when everyone plays the way they want.
Question: At what point do you propose to set player’s position?Answer: It is important not to do it too early and to experiment in various positions. In clubs where an associative style of play is played, it usually happens those players who as children played in advanced positions, at the end of their Initiation Stage or at the beginning of their Professional Stage, end up playing in more backward positions. For example, Jordi Alba when he was U14 he played as a midfielder and Sergio Busquets when he played at Barça B with Guardiola, he played some matches as Advanced Midfielder.
Among the four pillars on which Ekkono Identity is based to create or enhance a club identity, there is “Committees”, the pillar consisting of embodying the club values in order to develop an identity.
In this direction, at the Japanese club Amazing Academy Yamanashi, we have been recently working with the club's players on different values such as responsibility, respect and humility.
To guarantee the correct experience of the values, a values committee was created, composed of 6 people from different areas in the club. This Committee has the responsibility of ensuring that every person lives the proposed value, for which the following 4 actions are taken:
The Football Association of Thailand (FA Thailand) have been endorsed as a full member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Elite Youth Scheme for its continuous efforts in youth development.
With the aim of becoming one of the leading countries in Southeast Asia to develop youth players, FA Thailand introduced the Quality Training Project to support academies by providing the best education for players between the ages of 13 to 18.
The programme covers a wide range of areas including development guidelines for both men's and women's football, development processes for national teams, academy licensing system, technical resources for clubs and competition organization.
In addition, Thailand FA collaborated with BG Pathum United FC as a model Academy and achieved fulfilling the 20 criteria that the AFC’s Elite Youth Scheme requires to be approved as an Elite one-star academy.
The Football Association of Thailand (FA Thailand) Technical Director, Carles Romagosa, said: “The FA Thailand is committed to create a structured environment with modern training methods for youth teams. Youth football development is one of the key objectives for us.
“The AFC Elite Youth Scheme serves as a guide to achieve our ambitions. Using the Scheme as a reference and guide, the FA Thailand will implement in 2022 a six-level grading system for both men’s and women’s academies to raise their standards.
On April 23, coinciding with the International Day of the Book, Sant Jordi's Day is celebrated in Barcelona, where it is used to give the most loved ones a book and a rose.
Therefore, we cannot think of a better day to announce the launch of the second book of the Ekkono Method, “Ekkono Identity: The invisible part of Success”, in digital format.
The development of a football game model, a DNA in the Training Academy, and the ultimate creation of an identity are some of the current challenges faced by professional clubs. It is a proven fact that this is the best way to train a professional player for the first team and it is the right approach for a team’s economic strategy to be sustainable.
How to achieve it? Which structures should be coordinated in the organization? What are the processes to be carried out? This book includes an answer to all these questions and describes the authors’ experience, which they have been gathering for more than 20 years working with professional clubs all over the world.
Comprehend the importance of building an identity, explore the concepts of Talkmade, Smartfielder, Co-Learning and Committees, learn about the opinion of soccer experts, deep dive into each concept and how we applied it around the World, and find out real examples of material used in our projects.
Visit the link below and order your book!
https://ekkonocoaches.com/ekkonomethodbook
In preparation for the start of the PFF Coaching Certificate Courses for this year, the Philippine Football Federation (PFF) conducted the annual PFF Instructors’ Course from 18-30 March 2021, for which we were invited as special speakers.
As one of the few AFC Member Associations to be conferred with the AFC Coaching Convention – ‘A’ Level Membership, PFF aims to strengthen its pool of coaching instructors nationwide through this instructors’ course.
To do so, apart from our participation, some other great speakers from FIFA or JFA (Japan Football Association) also took part during the course.
During our lesson, all instructors had the chance to learn and discuss about all related to “Best Practices in Designing a Training Session” focusing on Initiation Stage (U6-U13).
According to Marlon Maro, Head of PFF’s Coaching Education Department “we have noticed how the knowledge was shared between the participants and the great speakers. The way the participants dealt with the scenarios presented provided a good outlook in their future career as coaching educators.”
March 2021 was the kick off for this new project together with the Estonian Football Association. The aim of this new step is to give Estonian coaches the opportunity to participate in an introductory course of Ekkono Method as part of further education.
The coaching program, lasting up to August 2021, will focus on analyzing the evolution of the training methodology across the different stages: Initiation, Specialization and high Performance.
In detail, coaches will go through the following topics:
In order make the learning experience as good as possible, the program will combine theoretical with field sessions, as well as, assignment work.
After a successful season in which IFK Göteborg won their 8th Swedish Cup, the historic Swedish club has announced the extension of their collaboration with us for one more season.
In this way, during this 3rd season of collaboration, we will keep on working on the construction of the club's identity, as well as working and advising young players of the club through our individualized programs (IPPP), and trying to maximize the performance of the first team.
Pontus Farnerud Sporting Director of IFK Göteborg stated that “Coach Ekkono Ferran is very popular in IFK Goteborg, not least in the player squad for both his personality and skills. He has a football knowledge that few coaches possess and has together with Roland found a well-functioning dynamic and a good way of working. It feels great that we agree on a continuation in 2021.
For his part, Roland Nilsson, coach of the first team, comments: “It is great to see how the collaboration between us has developed from day one and it will be exciting to see how we tackle together next season. We have done and are doing a great deal of analysis work to achieve success in 2021, and Ekkono plays an important role there”.
Making our knowledge accessible to coaches and football professionals all over the world has always been one of our goals as a company. During the years, we’ve travelled to many Continents organising hundreds of courses and seminars, helping more than 3,500 coaches in their football journey.
This experience has now led us to creating our online academy. We believe this is a step in the right direction to continue to provide education to coaches and other football professionals, making all our knowledge more accessible than ever.
The new school includes access to our e-Book, Webinars, Online Courses and also a Membership, offering a continuous and guided education. In total, over 50 hours of online courses and recorded webinars, hundreds of concepts, and plenty of training drills based on the Ekkono Method are available.
Visit the Ekkono Coaches Academy website for more information.
The historic Persija Jakarta club, founded in 1928 and proudly the most successful club in the PSSI competition with a collection of 11 league titles, has recently announced its collaboration agreement with us in order to use the Ekkono Method.
In this way, the Indonesian Club joins the large list of recent clubs such as Universidad Católica de Chile and San José Earthquakes, that have trusted the Ekkono Method to enhance their club’s identity and maximize their performance.
During this collaboration, we will educate the club’s directors and coaches about some of the most important aspects such as how to create and use a Methodology Department, how to build a great club identity and how to develop Smart Players, as well as go in-depth into Individual and Team fundamentals.
Our CEO, Miquel Farrerons, expressed his excitement to work together with Persija Jakarta. According to him, this is a proud step of cooperation for the development of Indonesian football, especially Persija.
"We are very grateful for Persija Jakarta’s trust in us. It will be a privilege to help the improvement of such a highly awarded club and with such a clear development project" said Miquel.
This collaboration was also enthusiastically welcomed by the Director of Persija, Jakarta, Ferry Paulus. According to him “as a big club, it is only natural for Persija to have a strong Sports Department based on modern methodologies. The collaboration with Ekkono is Persija's commitment to the development of future football" he said.
Christian Pulisic is one of the elite players with whom we have the pleasure of working, in order to help him grow and improve as a professional player.
The 22 years old american winger, signed by Borussia Dortmund when he was just 16 as part of the U19 team. After playing 15 games with the youth team, he was promoted to the first team, where scored 19 goals and give 26 assists in 127 games.
After 4 brilliant seasons during which he was two times nominated for the best under-21 player in the world, at the beginning of 2019, Chelsea F.C. made his signing official. This 20/21 season is his second one in the english team, where he has scored 13 goals and played 50 games.
Pulisic is also one of the most important players of the United States National Team, with which he became the youngest player in team’s history to score a goal.
After presenting him several individual reports in recent years, Christian Pulisic affirms that:
"I have achieved an immediate improvement in my game thanks to Ekkono"
Irene Paredes is another elite player with whom we have the pleasure of working, in order to help her grow and improve as a professional player.
The Basque center-back is currently the captain of Paris Saint-Germain, where she won the French Cup in 2018. Before landing at the French team, Irene had played 5 years (2011-2016) at Athletic de Bilbao, where she won la Liga, and 3 years at Real Sociedad (2008-2011).
In addition, Irene is also the captain of the Spanish National Team, in which she has played more than 60 matches. A proof of her great talent is that in 2017 she was chosen for the ideal team of FIFPRO World XI as one of the world’s best center backs.
From Soccer Services Barcelona, we designed a specific Individual Player Performance Program for Irene. To do so, different games played by the player were analyzed in order to identify different aspects to be perfected, such as the positioning at the start of the game, the types of passes that can generate greater advantage, or the understanding of when to maintain or break the balance from the defensive line.
Once this analysis was done, some reports were presented to the player explaining different concepts and fundamentals that would help her improve her performance.
After receiving the presentation of 3 individual reports in recent months, Irene Paredes states that:
"The Ekkono method has helped me interpret the game better and make better decisions"
Last week the The Best FIFA Football awards gala was held in Zurich, where the best football players of 2020 were voted and honored.
Among so many awardees, we are proud to see Verónica Boquete, current AC Milan player and with whom we have been collaborating for several years, selected in the in the FIFA FIFPro Women’s World11 2020.
As stated by Vero "The Ekkono method makes you a smart player and therefore it maximizes your performance"
On the other hand, Irene Paredes who is the current Spanish National team and PSG captain, and with whom we have the pleasure of advising, was nominated as one of the best defenders in the world.
According to Irene, "the Ekkono method has helped me interpret the game better and make better decisions"
Congratulations to both of you!!
After several months of hard work and effort, we can finally proudly announce that the “Thai Football Development Handbook” is finished and ready to be published.
The Federation of Thailand (FAT) and Ekkono Soccer Services Barcelona entered into a common project during March 2017, with the overall aim of assisting the Federation in developing Thai football and assembling the fundamentals in order to promote the educational practice of football, helping in the global development of young players and facilitating its growth.
Therefore, the aim of the “Thai Football Development Handbook”, which will later be distributed among all football clubs and academies of the country, is to clearly structure the mission in terms of technical projects, technical development, and coaches’ curriculum.
The “Thai Football Development Handbook”, is divided into the next two parts:
The first part describes the FAT Thai Football Formula, structured in the different stages of player development, and including an in-depth analysis of the current situation in Thailand. This curriculum outlines the importance of developing a football culture within which all stakeholders (coaches, referees, players, parents, etc.) have a part to play.
The second part (FAT Coaching Convention), is directly linked to the first part. It exposes the competences, contents, and skills that the coach must learn to exercise as a coach at each of the levels (G, C, B, A and PRO) that have been described in the first part of the book.
This plan is only the beginning of a long way. All successful nations have developed their players over a number of years with a clear strategy behind what they are doing.
Nara Club and Soccer Services Barcelona (SSB) have reached an agreement to use the Ekkono method both with the first team and in the club's Academy.
To do so, the Japanese club announces the creation of a Methodology Department, which will be managed by Ekkono, as well as entrust the management of the 1st team to an Ekkono Licensed Coach.
The main objectives of this collaboration, which will start in February 2021, are to build a game model and homogeneous identity from the Academy to the First Team, and to aspire in the long term to produce highest level young players.
Therefore, the main pillars of the project will be:
• Construction of a unified game model.
• Homogenization of the training methodology.
• Coaching education and tutelage to all club’s coaches
• Creation of a scouting plan to identify the best players
As the president of Nara Club Mitsuru Hamada states, “we are proud to announce the use of such a successful method as Ekkono in our club’s structure. After more than 10 years working together, I have been able to verify the benefits of using the method in professional teams, so I am convinced that Ekkono will help us achieve the established objectives and the growth of Nara Club. "
For his part, Miquel Farrerons, CEO of Soccer Services Barcelona affirms that "Japan is a very special country for us where we have 5 projects. We are very proud that Nara Club has decided to strengthen its structure through our consulting services. We want to thank the ownership and, especially the president, for their trust in us. We are convinced that the use of the Ekkono Method in its Identity version will accelerate the growth of the club, also improving its results at a sporting and social level "
With this new collaboration, the Ekkono Method continues to strengthen its foundations in Japan, where it has been present for more than 10 years.
IFK Göteborg's 17-year-old midfielder Jesper Tolinsson, has recently signed a 5-season contract with Belgian second division team Lommel SK, which is owned by City Group.
According to Pontus Farnerud, the IFK Goteborg’s Sport director “Jesper has begun the journey in which many players before him have succeeded, first being developed in our club’s academy and, after promoting to the A-team, reaching out to professional life in Europe. We are proud when our own players achieve this level of accomplishment and it is further proof that we have a very good academy.”
Even though Jesper will not move to Lommel until next summer, this transfer "will strengthen the club's coffers in these challenging times" according to club’s director Max Markusson.
Since he was promoted to club's A-team, Jesper Tollinson have been following an Ekkono Individual Player Performance Program in order to help him to improve his performance.
Best of luck Jesper!!
Young Finnish striker Kai Meriluoto is called to be one of the most promising revelations in Finnish football in the short term.
At 17 years of age, and after scoring 13 goals in 14 games for the Klubi-04 (HJK reserve team), HJK coach Toni Koskela gave him the opportunity to play his first minutes with the current Finnish League leader. In just over 10 minutes Kai managed to score his first goal with HJK, positioning himself as one of the youngest scorers in the club's history.
For a year and a half, Kai Meriluoto has been following an individualized Player Performance Plan by Ekkono in order to maximize his performance:
"I am very grateful to the Ekkono Method for helping me improve my understanding of the game and become a professional player."
Creating intelligent players is becoming a trend in modern football. However, it’s important to question, what is behind this expression? What makes an intelligent player? How should a Club or Federation organize themselves to create such profiles of players? What should I train if I want to become an intelligent player?
All of these questions and many more are coming from club owners, parents, coaches, and players from all over the world. But there is no single answer for any of them.
In this book you will find the history of the EKKONO METHOD, a successful football model used by a wide range of clubs and federations worldwide who share a common objective: become a reference in developing youth players.
Visit the link below and order your book before they run out! You can choose between e-book digital version or hard copy version.
https://ekkonocoaches.com/ekkonomethodbook
Soccer Services Barcelona has built a partnership with Latino Advocacy Group from United Soccer Coaches to provide Ekkono Method education to all of its affiliates.
As a first step in the partnership, from this week on all affiliated members will have the chance to take part in 3 Ekkono webinars focused on very relevant aspects for development of young soccer players.
The topics prepared for these webinars will be the following:
This partnership that would not have been possible without the support of Mario Fernandez and Julio Serrano, means taking a huge leap forward in USA, where soccer has still incredible potential.
Recently, HJK and Eerikkilä (Ekkono Method’s partner in Finland) have signed a cooperation agreement which enables HJK to utilize the Ekkono Method more extensively in its coaching.
Considered as Finland's biggest club, HJK is the most successful Finnish club in terms of championship titles, with 29 Finnish Leagues and 13 Finnish Cups won. Moreover, HJK is the only Finnish club that has participated in the UEFA Champions’ League group stage.
The deal between HJK and Eerikkilä is an important step towards HJK’s ambition to be the best football club in the Nordic countries. According to Miika Takkula, HJK’s sports and development director:
“We trust that we will have the most advanced coaching program in the Nordic region. We have systematically developed our coaching system since 2015. We are not making any revolutionary changes in our present operation but fine-tuning our existing model. Soccer Services offer us key expertise that we lack. Since our coaching system is heavily based on Soccer Services’ Ekkono Method this step is only logical.”
During our first year of collaboration with Albirex Niigata, despite being mainly focused on tasks within the Academy, we have carried out several collaborative actions with the first team.
Among these actions is the Individual Player Performance Program (IPPP) elaborated for the striker Leonardo Nascimento Lopes de Souza "Leo".
This program consisted of an individual report for which the Ekkono Engine analyzed several matches played by Leo identifying different technical aspects to be improved. Afterwards, based on this analysis, the Methodology Department presented and explained to the Brazilian player different concepts that would help him improve his performance. On the other hand, at the end of the season he was presented with a final report to measure his improvement and understanding of the previously explained contents and concepts.
Since the presentation of the individual report until the end-of-season, Leo managed to score 20 goals in 20 matches finishing the season as top scorer in the Japanese Second Division. Moreover, his market value was increased by 1M EUR during this period according to Transfermarkt.
Despite their recent defeat in the UEFA Champions League final against Bayern Munich, PSG have been among the elite of world football for several years now. This success can, in part, be credited to the brilliant work they are doing with their youth teams, as Paris Saint-Germain’s academy has become one of the best world-class players producers in recent years.
An example of which is Kingsley Coman, who scored the winning goal in the final and was trained at the PSG’s academy from a young age, before signing for Juventus. Coman aside, there is a large list of players who came out of PSG’s academy and are now succeeding in Europe: Adrien Rabiot (Juventus), Moussa Diaby (Bayer Leverkusen), Presnel Kimpembe (PSG), Dan Axel Zagadou (Borussia Dortmund) , Jean-Kevin Augustin (RB Leipzig),…
During our 3 years of collaboration with the club, we had the opportunity to work with several of these players. Among them, was the promising young French player, Yacine Adli, who stated "I have made a lot of progress both tactically and technically thanks to the method of David Hernández, with whom I have worked a lot on an individual level."
Last Thursday, IFK Göteborg managed to beat Malmö FF in the final of the Svenska Cupen achieving their eighth Swedish Cup.
This new title that has not been achieved since the 2014-2015 season, widens even more the club's trophy record, which also includes 15 Swedish Leagues and 2 UEFA Cups, among other competitions.
After a year and a half collaborating with the club, from Soccer Services Barcelona we would like to congratulate them for this great achievement and express our immense happiness and enthusiasm to verify that when you trust in the process, no challenge is unreachable.
Grattis IFK Göteborg!!
There is no doubt that soccer interest in the United States and the professionalization of the MLS clubs are growing by leaps and bounds. Proof of this is the selection of United States joint bid, together with Mexico and Canada, to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
In this scenario, we had the chance to collaborate with the Californian club San Jose Earthquakes, the two-time MLS champion.
It should be noted that the Earthquakes´ Methodology Department and Academy coaches have made great progress defining a precise style of play and further aligning themselves with the first team.
As Alex Covelo, Methodology Director at San Jose Earthquakes indicates: “During this time in which we haven’t been able to take the field, we’re fortunate to be able to gain knowledge from one of the world’s most respected soccer methodology leaders in Ekkono”
Soccer Services Barcelona and Finland have a very close relationship since we started working in the Nordic country more than 10 years ago. Our main goal was to help them develop and improve their soccer skills and culture.
In this way, and with the help of Eerikkilä Sport Institute (the only center licensed to offer Ekkono Method training courses) and Sami Hyypiä Academy, we have trained hundreds of Finnish coaches over the years, advised dozens of young players and collaborated with the best academies in the country.
Today, several coaches trained under the Ekkono Method are part of the Football Association of Finland, and many players who were advised are frequently called up for the different categories of the national team.
For all these reasons, we are very proud of Finland's recent historic qualification for EURO 2020. A clear sign that perseverance, dedication and training can lead to any goal.
Onnittelut suomelle!!
A few days ago, our CEO Miquel Farrerons was interviewed on Soccer Matters, a sports program broadcasted on the American channel ESPN and directed by Glenn Davis.
During the course of the interview, Miquel spoke about the Ekkono projects carried out around the world, such as our collaboration with PSG or FA Thailand, as well as recently, at the Catholic University of Chile.
At the same time, he answered questions about our Individual Players Performance Plan followed with top-class players such as the American Christian Pulisic, and had the opportunity to explain what is the Ekkono Identity methodology and its differences with Ekkono Smart.
More and more professional clubs are showing their interest in enhancing their identity and maximizing their performance by implementing the Ekkono Method.
On this occasion, the historic Santiago Wanderers, founded in 1892 making the club the oldest one in Chile, joins the list of Chilean football clubs with which we have recently reached a collaboration agreement.
The objective of this project is none other than to enhance the sports identity of the club through the use of the Ekkono Method, mainly emphasizing on the club's academy.
In this way, the president of the club Rafael González, valued this agreement highlighting the benefits that it will bring for the institution, affirming that “this collaboration seeks to continue promoting and perfecting the work we are developing, around a coherent sports and institutional identity with the importance and history of Santiago Wanderers. For this reason, the application will be transversal to all levels, with the aim of making the most of a specialized company that has been working for years with some of the best teams in the world ”.
The collaboration agreement between Soccer Services Barcelona and Universidad Católica de Chile, one of the biggest clubs in Chile (14 first division titles, 4 Chilean Cups, 2 Supercups and one Interamerican Cup among others) has been made official today.
The first stage of the project, which will be attended by coaches of its academy and women’s teams as well as the main executives of the club’s sports services, will focus on providing Universidad Católica de Chile with technical and strategic support, with the aim of further enhancing the training of players through the Ekkono method. To this end, football aspects as important as methodology, planning and game model will be considered.
As Nelson Parraguez (Academy Manager at Universidad Católica) put it, "we hope that this newly started collaboration with Ekkono will be of mutual benefit. We have focused it on our Academy Football, taking advantage of the moment we are living in and the experience and knowledge guaranteed by the Ekkono method".
Recently, we have finished our first season of collaboration at Albirex Niigata with a clear objective: Make the Albirex Niigata Academy the one with the highest production of professional players in the region and with the best coaches.
In the report presented to the club, we show you all the actions carried out jointly within each of the pillars of Ekkono Identity, as well as the achievements and proposed next steps of each of these actions.
The main focuses of the project were:
To know in detail all the work done within the club, you have the full report available at the following link:
After having the pleasure of visiting O'Higgins FC a few months ago and owing to the impression we made on them, we have reached an agreement with the Chilean club to use the Ekkono Identity method in their organization.
Through this collaboration, O'Higgins FC, 2014 Chilean Super Cup and 2013 Chilean First Division’s Torneo Apertura champions, will receive personalized training focused on making the most of the club's training and methodology.
After closing the agreement, Pablo Calandria, the club's sports manager, said that "our meeting at Monasterio Celeste Sports Center that was held some months ago opened the doors enabling that today, despite the circumstances, we can meet again to plan a joint effort”.
Recently, Christchurch United FC, 6-time winner of the New Zealand National League and many others from the Chatham Cup, and Soccer Services Barcelona, have reached a collaboration agreement to use the Ekkono Identity method.
The project aims to increase the effectiveness of club’s methodology already existing in the club. To do so, personalized technical support will be provided, both to all the Academy's coaches, and to the Director of Methodology.
Michiel Buursma, Head of coaching and methodology Christchurch United: “Ekkono is a highly renowned program and used by professional football academies around the globe. We are looking forward to learning a lot from Ekkono during the upcoming period, so when we get back on the field, we can help our players develop even better!”
On March 7 we had the pleasure of participating in the "8th International Football Conference" organized by the Akademia Piłkarska Champions of Katowice (Poland).
In this our sixth consecutive attendance to the event, more than 250 coaches from all over the country were reunited eager to learn more about football.
When our turn came, the conference attendees were able to deepen their understanding of the tactical intentions of control, as well as its importance and what and how to train at each stage.
Read more:
- Sportdziennik.com (PL)
- Junioer.wezlo.com (PL)
Smartfielder is the pillar of the Ekkono Method which focuses on maximizing a player’s access to the professional environment, turning him into smart and expert players.
In order to do so, the following five cognitively oriented methodological elements must be worked on; they will bring us closer to achieving the objective of creating a "smart player".
Therefore, the Ekkono Method continues to focus on the creation of training contexts which, through teaching styles such as guided discovery or problem solving, require the player to be actively involved in his learning process. Recently, the talks with coaches, the sum of experiences working with professional players and the contributions of the latest research in sports sciences, have led us to include video-analysis as a key factor in our approach.
Through the use of technology, young players will be able to learn to evaluate themselves from an early age, which is one of the main characteristics of expert players.
Watch the video here:
During this month, we have carried out the first Co-Learning activity with the U17 players of the Thai Federation.
Co-Learning, one of the four pillars on which the Ekkono Method is based in order to create or strengthen an identity, consists in decentralizing the teaching processes to accelerate the learning processes.
On this occasion, several U17 players were selected to play the role of a coach for a few days, in which after understanding and discussing about specific contents and game concepts with our Ekkono staff, they prepared training tasks to be able to work on them.
Later, and after defining different roles, the U17 players dressed as coaches and carried out one of these tasks during the training with the U14 team.
The main objective of this dynamic is for the players to better understand a specific training content, as well as to give them a different point of view that will surely help them when competing.
On the other hand, Co-Learning activities help us to emphasize such important values as teamwork, cooperation and the importance of helping and teaching the younger generations.
Carles Romagosa, co-founder together with David Hernández of the Ekkono Method, began his career at Futbol Club Barcelona in 1998. During his time in the catalan entity, he was the director of the FCB Football School from 1998 to 2000. In addition, he was grassroots coach for 4 years and trained young figures that would later become professionals and even world champions like Gerard Piqué, Jordi Alba, Cesc Fàbregas, Bojan Krkic or Víctor Ruiz among others.
Many of these players still have great memories of Carles and this can be clearly seen in the following interview with Jordi Alba, in which he states that "Carles Romagosa personally helped me a lot; as a person he was outstanding and he is one of the coaches from whom I have learned the most".
Watch the original interview here:
The People's Republic of China has been developing national football development plans for more than 15 years. The one conceived in 2014 with the aim of becoming a footballing superpower by 2025 evidences China’s intention.
In the previous national development plan, in 2011 the Chinese Football Association (CFA) planned the creation of a High-Performance Centre in Catalonia where Chinese players would be permanently shaped under Spanish methodology.
After being part of the technical sub-directorate of the Catalan Football Federation 2009-2011, at Soccer Services Barcelona we had the mission to select the best Chinese players in U15 and U17 categories who would later launch the program. To that end, we travelled to China for a season, where we visited all the country's prefectures analysing a multitude of young players from all over the territory. Besides, we held regular meetings with the Chinese National Team coaches of that age group, and with coaches whose teams were qualifying for the prefectures’ final phases.
Finally, a total of 44 players were selected (22 from U15 and 22 from U17) to be part of the only high-performance Chinese centre in Catalonia. At the same time and in parallel, a report was made detailing the strategic development both for the training of coaches, the development and organization of Chinese competitions, as well as for the development of teaching units in the country's schools.
FIFA recently made official the four final candidacies for the organization of the next Women's World Cup in 2023.
Alongside Brazil, Colombia and Australia & New Zealand, there is Japan’s candidacy, a country with which Soccer Services Barcelona has been collaborating for more than 10 years in order to develop and promote its footballing level in every respect. Among the different projects we have been carrying out in the Asian country, our 3-year collaboration with the Japanese Football Federation is specially outstanding.
This project, which began in 2012, aimed to take Japanese football to the next level using the Ekkono methodology. To this end, a training programme for coaches was carried out throughout the country and a training methodology programme was developed for the Japanese federation's high performance centres for both men and women in the country.
Since then, many of the female players we directly work with have made the leap to professional football. Such are the cases of the U20 World Cup champions Hannah Stambaugh, Endo Jun, Miyu Takahira and the senior internationals Chica Hirao, Miyake Shiori, Hikaru Kitagawa, Rika and Moriya Miyabi.
After the end of the Allsvenskan 2019 season, where IFK Göteborg surpassed the initial expectations for this season, last week we travelled to Gothenburg to meet with the club managers.
In the meetings, a summary and a positive analysis of our first season collaborating with the Swedish club were carried out. In addition, our utmost degree of collaboration was agreed for the following season.
Besides, we took the opportunity to present a final report of the season summarizing the impact of the collaboration and the use of the Ekkono method in different aspects and areas within the club.
As Max Markusson, CEO of IFK Göteborg, says:
"IFK Göteborg went through tremendous strategic work in autumn 2018. After that, we agreed to take a further step in enhancing the growth of our players. This collaboration is a fundamental part of our sports strategy, and we are very happy to use the Ekkono Method to improve our club"
Soccer Services Barcelona has been advising high level world players for years with the aim of helping them grow and improve as players.
Since we worked together at PSG, Vero Boquete (world reference in women's football, UEFA Women's Champions League champion and FIFA & La Liga ambassador) has placed her trust in our experience developing the talent of players in order to help her continue improving as a professional player.
Thus, Vero visited the offices of Soccer Services Barcelona to receive her third individual annual report. These reports consist in an analysis of the player's performance in the latest matches stressing the previously defined aspects to be worked on, and then advising her on how to boost her strengths and improve her weaknesses.
After several years of working together, Vero Boquete states:
"The Ekkono method makes you a smart player and therefore it maximizes your performance"
"Laranja Azul" is the official monthly magazine of Albirex Niigata. Thanks to it the followers of this Japanese Club are updated both about current issues related to the first team and about the other teams’ work within the academy.
Since Soccer Services Barcelona started its project with Albirex Niigata, the magazine "Laranja Azul" reports every month on the work carried out by the methodology department in the academy, which is none other than to homogenize an identity.
On this occasion, the article refers to the Talkmade sessions (theoretical and practical) conducted by the methodology department together with all the trainers of the academy. Moreover, the perception area through which perceptive trainings are carried out with all the teams in the academy is also discussed.
On the other hand, Shuya Honda, a player in the U18 team, tells in an interview how after attending the Ekkono Field.Rec video analysis sessions, he has learned to better understand the game and how to shake off.
Creating intelligent players is becoming a trend in modern football. However, its important to question, what is behind this expression? What makes an intelligent player? How should a Club or Federation organize themselves to create such profiles of players? What should I train if I want to become an intelligent player?
All of these questions and many more are coming from club owners, parents, coaches, and players from all over the world. But there is no single answer for any of them. Most importantly, what is useful and important in one country, may not have the same significance in another country.
In this book you will find the history of the EKKONO METHOD, a successful football model used by a wide range of clubs and federations world wide who share a common objective: become a reference in developing youth players.
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