At football club Real Sranang Koppen the pupils never

When a father shoots the ball for ten meters into the air for the training, Anouar lets it bouncing quietly. « Do you ever head? » His mother Nadia asks because NRC would like to know that. « Only during the competition, » says Anouar, with a freshly shaved head after a hairdressing visit. And he runs back on the field. « You still need that head, isn’t it, » says his mother. « He can also count well. »

During the training on Thursday of the under-8 pupils of the Amsterdam football club Real Sranang, the conclusion of the Health Council Certainly not the conversation of the afternoon. Koppen increases the chance of brain injury and vigilance is offered specifically in children. Some parents on the sidelines at Sportpark Middenmeer have seen it in the news. But Koppen did not do their children around the age of eight.

Anouar, Thomas and Damine have all been scouted by youth training from professional clubs. Who knows how far they will make it. If it is up to the current guidelines of the KNVB, they will gradually learn to head. The Football Association is in favor of limiting, but also to learning how to technically control a ball.

‘Abolish’

The question is how the Sportsraad Nederland translates the Health Council’s research into advice to the government. Brain professor Erik Scherder, member of this advisory body, does not want to explain anything on the phone. « It would not be good if I now say something about it in between. »

« For my part they abolish heads, » says 8-trainer Germain Beudeker of the club in Amsterdam East. « Or that you only keep it with the pros and higher amateurs. It’s a game, right? » He was not good at it either, headlines. « It was not allowed by my mother, who already realized that it is not good for you. » How then? « I think by boxing stories. See what happened to Muhammad Ali. » The boxing legend has suffered from Parkinson’s since the 1980s, before he died in 2016.

Under-8 pupils of the Amsterdam football club Real Sranang Koppen never actually.

Photos Olivier Middendorp

Parents along the line do make a distinction between football and boxing or kickboxing. « That is a little more intense, » says Mark de Goede. « Did you see that? » He says as football player Thomas a high ball passing by. Mother Morgana saw it too. « He could head, but chose not to do that. » She explains how Thomas got a ball hard on his head last October, « it was winter cold. » He still finds it exciting, his parents suspect.

Ahmed Chalile, the father of Damine, is not worried. His son is a handy dribbling tag, which after an internship at Feyenoord will enter the youth academy in Rotterdam next season. It does not look like he will be a lieving striker or a bumpy defender who prevails in the airspace. « I would be vigilant if he suddenly has to go on a lot of head matches, » says Chalile. But all youth education are bound by the KNVB guidelines, he knows.

Three times per hour

The pupils are allowed to head three times per hour from trainer Germain. But in practice they head « never, » he says. Of course, the older and stronger players become, the more often the ball goes into the air. « They can also just keep their hands in front of them, » says Anouar’s mother Nadia, who would rather not in the newspaper. “Occasionally you hear a very serious in between who then shouts: hands!  »

You must have been in the sand with your head if you are still shocked by these conclusions

Neighborclub Zeeburgia, also at Sportpark Middenmeer, is an even larger breeding ground for talent. Here too, it is not specifically trained in the youth. Well -kept football is paramount, high balls are not really part of that, says chairman André Bonvanie on the phone. And then corner kicks? « You train on scoring, on positioning. Not specifically on heads. »

The fact that the Health Council has now listed earlier investigations does not make much impression on him. « You and I are lost, » says Bonvanie, « but players who are now being trained, train differently. Everyone finds it just as exciting again, we don’t. And you must have been in the sand with your head if you are still scared of these conclusions. »

To share

Mail the editors