Jean Kindermans Technical Director Youth, Royal Sporting Club Anderlecht


Is it difficult to develop home- grown players? We had Vincent Kompany who is now one of the big players for Manchester City and now we have Romelu Lukaku, who we think Chelsea and Manchester City are interested in, and he’s just 18 years old. We always have had players coming through because we are the biggest club in Belgium.


Now, with the new rules about home grown players from UEFA, we are focusing on developing not only the ‘stars’, but the group just under: the second path. It’s a big objective for the future to produce players.


is more and more expensive to buy players - I think our budget is 250th in Europe - we have to work harder at producing players.


What specifically do you work on with your young players? We work very hard at the technical side of football, the creativity, the invention, on movement with and without the ball. I think we all dream of the football we have seen from Barcelona. Everybody is talking about Barcelona and Spain, but if you analyse Spain its only in the last three or four years that they have won titles. So we have to be


“ We try to distinguish ourselves from the other teams. Our public is very demanding.”


Is the approach to player development different to that which you have observed in England? There is not much difference between how we educate and educating in England. We both work with a pyramid with a big base, it becomes more and more difficult as you go up the pyramid - with more optimised training sessions – to try and produce boys.


I think we have two problems in Belgium. One: how do we protect our talents from leaving for France, England and sometimes Holland. Two: in top clubs like Anderlecht, the result is very important. But young boys from 17, 18, 19 years old – early developers, late developers – are sometimes not capable to immediately get results. So, now we have to look at using the loan system. It may be that the better talents at 17, 18 and 19 years old have to be sent to other clubs in the first Belgium division for one, two, maybe three years, and take them back if they are successful.


What is your philosophy at Anderlecht? The history and culture of our club is built on technical and attractive football. We try to distinguish ourselves in Belgium from the other teams. Our public is very demanding, because we have to win. But we have to win with style, with good football. In the last few years it became difficult, because maybe the players we educate, or the players we buy, are not talented enough. If we find players within our own system who can meet those demands then we will fight to protect them [from other clubs] but if we can’t then we will go out and look. As it


honest and we have to look at how they have reached this level. Is it the culture, or is it a way of educating starting ten, fifteen, twenty years ago?


One of the first things I try and discover with young boys is talent. Without talent it is very difficult to be on top of the pyramid. So I look at lots of things: how do they think; how do they run; how do they see and read the game. Then we are trying to improve them technically, playing with both feet.


How do you develop creativity? Creativity I think is something you have inside; you have it, or you have it not. It is our job to discover those boys and protect those boys; especially when they are in a difficult social environment or if they are late-developers. We have to find a way to be patient and to give them an opportunity. We need to put them in an environment where they can continue to improve.


What are the biggest challenges you face in the future? The big ambition is to reinstall movement. The very youngest Belgium boys don’t move [as much] anymore; they don’t run. I think we must again co-operate with schools – you are at school from 8 o’clock in the morning to 4 o’clock in the afternoon, you are on a chair and you don’t move. You see young boys and they are playing with the Playstation and the iPhone. You don’t see the boys who are running, jumping, springing and climbing. Now we [the football club] have to develop all skills to ensure that by the age of 18, 19, 20 the players are performance athletes.


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