Ryan Graham, Observer Reporter
From a young age, Saibo Talic of the European Football School always had a passion for the sport of soccer and continues his love for the game through his coaching.
Talic, who moved to Canada in 1993 during the war in the former Yugoslavia, started EFS in 2000 with a desire to teach the next generation the sport of soccer. He says the program focuses on the fundamentals of the game.
“Skills are the number one thing for Canadian kids and more time with the ball,” Talic said.
“We work on turning with the ball, shooting, group tactics, dribbling, passing and controlling the ball.”
He adds coordination and balance are stressed during sessions.
“Lots of kids are not coordinated and balanced so we work on that a lot of time so we can improve on their upper and lower body coordination,” Talic said.
“We say in soccer if you cannot control your body you cannot control the ball and then the ball will control you. It’s important as a young kid be able to control your body because then it will be easier to control the ball.”
He says to be a successful coach you need to have love for the game and always learn new skills to help your players achieve their goals.
“You have to have passion and love for it and study the sport because it’s not just enough to have your skills you also need to have knowledge,” Talic said.
“We say you have to respect the soccer of the past, study the soccer of today and understand the soccer of tomorrow. To be a successful coach it’s not just work and demonstration, you need to also understand your players and be mentally strong and a good leader.”
Talic says EFS has been very successful over the years.
“We have had more than 40 players play in Germany, Belgium and Holland over the years,” Talic said.
“Some of them have even progressed to play professional soccer in Germany, Holland, Portugal and Greece, which for me is a huge success.”
He added they also had two players play on the biggest stage in soccer. The first is Daniel Fernandes, who competed for Portugual in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and the second is Senijad Ibricic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who played in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. He has also coached Dillon Hughes and Nick Dasovic of the Canadian national team.
Talic says there are a number of players who have been successful from Quesnel. One of those include Quesnel’s Kyra Teezen, who had the opportunity to go over to Europe with Talic and EFS in 2015, where they played against teams in Holland, Germany and Belgium. The purpose of the trip was to see how the game of soccer is played in Europe and the level of competition.
He says players need to have as much practice time as possible to develop their skill and also good coaching to help them.
“There is great local soccer in Northern B.C. but they just need more good coaches and practice time,” Talic said.
“You have to have good coaching to correct your work and show drills to the players in all aspects of the game.These kids need repetition and through the repetition they will develop their game. It’s also important to ensure the players you caoch are enjoying the game.”
Talic says soccer at the national level for the men’s side is very good but they haven’t been able to show their abilities to the world.
“There are excellent players here in Canada but the problem is Canada doesn’t have the quality of presentation at the World Cup stage,” Talic said.
He adds the recent women’s team success is not shocking.
“It’s not surprising the women’s competition is doing very well because we have more girls playing soccer than most of the other countries in the world.”
With EFS, Talic is developing the game at the grassroots level which will only help Canadian soccer moving forward as they look to compete on the world stage.
