Belgian Chris Van Puyvelde has been named Morocco’s new National Technical Director.
Presented Friday at the Mohammed VI National Football Center in Maamoura (near Salé), the 62-year-old technician was, in particular, technical director of Belgium from 2015 to 2018, then of China until June 2022.
He previously worked as a manager or assistant coach in several clubs since 1993.
On this occasion, the president of the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF), Faouzi Lekjaa returned to the vision of development of Moroccan football, through which the missions of the DTN for the next stage are drawn.
He underlined, in this regard, that the starting point was the establishment of the Mohammed VI National Football Center, given the importance of sports infrastructure in the implementation of strategies in this area.
Whatever the will or the level of the technical supervision, it is very difficult to concretize the strategies put in place, he noted.
The president of the FRMF has also revealed the intention to lower the age for starting training, which is currently 15, to bring it back to 11-12 years.
For this, a project, which is in progress, aims to take advantage of the local fields in the districts of the various Moroccan cities, while training former players so that they assume the supervision of young people at this level, has explained Fouzi Lekjaa.
It is also a question of supporting the clubs in their work of supervising young people and providing them all with training centers, he said, advocating the establishment at the level of the DTN of a unit responsible exclusively for the management of this type of centre.
The main objective of the DTN will be to register the dynamics that the national football knows in the durability, the perenniality and the total professionalism, insisted the person in charge.
For his part, Van Puyvelde emphasized respect for all those who work in football, collective work and the need to observe before recruiting.
“It is possible that Morocco will be the first country in Africa. In life, you have to dream. When I was in Belgium, we dreamed of being the first in the world and we did it. So why can’t we do it here? he said.
“I am told that there are difficulties, but I don’t want to talk about them because there are difficulties everywhere. I want to speak by saying + we will do it together +”, insisted the Belgian technician.
“We have challenges, but when we want to succeed in life, we will have difficulties from time to time, but in the end the results will crown the process”he added.
“There’s a lot of talent, but in the end it’s the performance that counts and that comes with the details. When you go to the World Cup, as I did with Belgium, it was the details that decided. But to do that, you need long-term education”he explained.
“We must also bring together people who want to support this magnificent country”, Van Puyvelde said, adding “in my philosophy, players are the norm and around them you have to create a platform with all the people who want to help them succeed in their careers”.
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