A group of coaches from Birkirkara Youth Nursery together with Nursery chairman Henry Bray, recently had the opportunity to attend a Football Coaching Course at Atalanta BC Headquarters in Zingonia, Bergamo.

Throughout their five-day visit in Italy, the Maltese contingent met Atalanta Settore Giovanile coaches with whom they exchanged ideas and observed most of their training sessions held during the week.

Instructional meetings conducted by Atalanta’s professional coaches namely Stefano Bonaccorso and Andrea Pandolfi were delivered both on and off the field while the Birkirkara coaches also experienced a selection exercise conducted by Atalanta’s professional technical staff and even had time to note, listen and discuss the subject of recruiting youngsters with one of Atalanta’s Chief Scouts.

The delegation was also invited to visit “La Casa dei Giovani” – today, the home of 20 young talented players who form part of Atalanta’s Youth teams and at present, are living away from home.

Dott. Lucia Castelli, a physiologist who works with the club, explained and talked about the problems encountered at youth sector level. Her full time work with Atalanta included handling any difficulties which the boys may have at home or school apart from keeping the coach vs parents relation in good shape.

At the end of the stage, the whole group was granted special permission to watch the first team play against Parma at the Stadio Atleti Azzuri d’Italia. The list of participants during this memorable experience was Henry Bray, Franco Agius, Charles Borg, Robert Bray and Oliver Mallia.