Our Youth teams are back on the field

Since the beginning of this week Beerschot’s youth teams –from U14 to U21 - are back in business now that the corona safety measures have been reviewed. Youth Academy manager Davy De Smedt is relieved and happy his youngsters are finally allowed to train. “It is also mentally important they can practice again.”

“It has been a jigsaw puzzle to get everyone started”, De Smedt says. “All our youth teams now train in groups of ten players, as the new rulings stipulate. This meant organising more sessions to give everyone the opportunity to train. Luckily we have sufficient training fields available, both at the ‘Universiteitsplein’ and the ‘Wilrijkse Pleinen’ grounds.”

From an organisational point of view Davy De Smedt is relieved training sessions have restarted. “We evaluate our players on a regular basis and training sessions play a big part in that process. It will enable us to follow up their progression better and take it all into account for our final evaluation at the end of the season.”

“During the last couple of months we haven’t just been waiting for the restart doing nothing. On the contrary. We have worked really hard adjusting our structure for next season, which must enable us to work in an even more professional manner. In that respect we recently recruited new coaches and players to make our Academy even stronger.”

“I would like to thank all our volunteers who worked really hard in difficult circumstances the last few months, not just on the structural front but also in setting up actions like for instance our ‘waffle and chocolate truffles’ sales.”