Talented teenage footballers in the Cayman Islands are getting career opportunities abroad and the latest two will be off to Holland at the end of the month.
Ryan Jackson and Devonte Morejon get a chance to experience the best of Dutch football by practicing twice a day with the Willem ll/PSV Academy in Tilburg from Mar. 29 to Apr. 15.
For Morejon, 13, the exposure is vital to see the intensive level of training Dutch academies and, for Jackson, it can be the first step to a professional career.
If Jackson, 16, impresses enough, he hopes to make the Willem ll Under-17 team. The central midfielder with Future Sports Club in West Bay was one of the best Cayman players at last year’s inaugural U-15 tournament in Cayman.
Players at the Willem 11 academy attend a high school. They practice twice a day and play one or two games a week. If they prove that they are good enough, they get a professional contract at the age of 18.
The players are selected based on speed, tactical awareness, technique and personality. That last aspect is hard to judge, so they will play and train for two weeks with Willem ll.
Willem ll is one of the oldest professional clubs in the Netherlands. After 27 years playing in the Dutch Premier League, they were relegated last year and are in second place in the second tier and expect to be promoted this season.
Jackson went for a tryout with top Spanish club Valencia last year, but they wanted to charge him a huge amount for a spot in their academy.
If Jackson plays for the Dutch Willem ll Academy, they will cover all the costs, including school, transportation, accommodation and equipment.
The trip was arranged by Dutch youth football coach Roy Wilhem, a regular visitor to the Cayman Islands. Wilhem has soccer academies in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Indiana which fund his overseas travel. He loves the football setup in Cayman and also likes to escape the winter in Europe and American mid-west.
Wilhem chose Jackson because, after helping coach the Cayman national U-15 team, he thought the youngster was the best. “Ryan is a controlling midfielder. Most Caymanians like to play as attacking midfielders or playmakers and in Holland they are looking for controlling midfielders.”
It will be tough for Jackson to break into Dutch football because Holland’s youth program is world renowned but Willem thinks he deserves a chance.
Jackson says he is extremely excited about this trip and is confident he can make the grade. He feels he benefited from the experience of the CONCACAF tournament. “It was great to play against international teams like Bermuda and Aruba,” he said.
He spent 12 days at Valencia and even in that short spell gained something out of it. “It was great,” he said. “They play at a much higher pace. I felt I could have made it there because most of the players did not seem that good.”
Jackson supports AC Milan but is inspired by Paris Saint-Germain’s brilliant striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Morejon is a left-back or right-back for Academy Sports Club and has already played abroad with them at the Disney tournament in Orlando and in Miami. He supports Bayern Munich and his favorite player is Lionel Messi.
Like Jackson, Morejon is excited about going to Europe and training with more experienced kids of his own age. Although it is spring time, it can still be extremely cold there. He is not worried. “I like the cold a lot,” he claimed.
Bruce Blake, first vice-president of the Cayman Islands Football Association, said, “I think this is a great opportunity for Ryan and Devonte and commend their clubs Future and Academy for developing them into such good players.
“This opportunity emphasizes how well CIFA’s youth policy is working and hopefully there will be many more youngsters getting similar chances with top professional clubs in Europe.”
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