Although it has been more than a day since the final took place, I’m still enjoying the happy glow following the excitement of Germany clinching their 4th World Cup with a 1-0 extra-time win against Argentina on Monday morning. As expected, it was a tight and nail-biting contest between the two sides. Although Die Mannschaft enjoyed a significant advantage in terms of possession in the 120 minutes of the contest, Argentina showed high effectiveness with their counter attacking style. On at least three occasions the Argentine strikers managed to break clear from the German defence, but to our great fortune they squandered those golden chances. Finally, our patience and composure paid off seven minutes from the end of extra time, as Mario Gotze chested down the ball inside the penalty area and volleyed past the Argentine goalkeeper to score the only goal of the match. It was a wonderfully taken goal and a moment of elation for everyone supporting Germany. I hope my cheers at around 5.30am did not disturb my neighbours!
After a few near-misses in recent World Cups and European Championships, it’s pleasing to see Germany winning their first major tournament in 18 years, since the European Championships in 1996. Now the whole team and coach Jogi Low have equaled the feat of German football legends such as Franz Beckenbauer and Berti Vogts in 1974, as well as Lothar Matthaus and Jurgen Klinsmann in 1990, to become World Cup winners and national heroes.
Over the past decade the German Football Association (DFB) has placed huge importance on youth development, with the aim of enhancing the technical ability of aspiring footballers. This system has resulted in a pool of top up-and-coming talent in German football, including their ace player Thomas Muller, Monday’s goalscorer Gotze, as well as midfielders Christophe Kramer and Julian Draxler. Their presence ensure that we are able to field a team comprising of an ideal blend of experienced veterans and promising young players in this World Cup. Although in the next World Cup in Russia in 2018 you will not be seeing our record striker Miroslav Klose playing again, and perhaps also our captain Philipp Lahm who will be 34 by then, I remain confident that we shall have some excellent replacements to come up.
Anyway, I believe this style of football development makes sense wherever you are in the world. It’s also what the Club, as a major sporting operator here in Hong Kong, has been doing in our support of various local youth football development programmes in recent years. Back on Sunday we hosted the congregation ceremony of our inaugural Youth Football Leadership Scheme and yesterday, the opening ceremony of the Jockey Club Elite Youth Football Camp for this year, with both projects being collaborations between the Club and Manchester United. To our delight, former United defender Ronny Johnsen also came all the way from Norway to Hong Kong and was in attendance at both occasions, giving his huge support to us and to these elite young footballers.
I was happy to have the chance to chat with Ronny and some young footballers at Sunday’s ceremony. With a slight different to other similar projects we have supported, the Youth Football Leadership Scheme not only focusses on developing the skills of the participants but also on their social and intellectual development through organising and conducting community football activities for younger children in their home districts. I wish to give my sincere thanks to our partner, the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals who have been working very hard to look after the needs of both our youth leaders and the 100 or more younger children involved in the community activities.
I was told that all of the participants, numbering almost 50, have been doing very well this year. Six of them who have performed outstandingly well will depart to the UK next month and participate in United’s community activities in Manchester, with the chance to visit the first team at training sessions and actual matches. But as I understood, it was difficult for the selection panel in choosing which six participants can go to UK, because they saw a wonderful enthusiasm, passion and commitment in the whole group. At the end the panel did the tough job and completed the selections. I’ve met the sextet on Sunday and they seemed bright and outgoing. I believe for them it will be a very special experience and could prove to be pivotal for their future development.
In my home country Germany, it’s not uncommon to see children receiving systematic football training as young as six or seven years old. It seems that there is a similar trend now in Hong Kong as local parents become more willing to let their children enrol in such training courses at an earlier age. Similar to football players, I believe that the younger a person is in receiving riding training, the better. The latest round of our Racing Trainee Recruitment Programme commenced last week. A special point this year is that youngsters can submit their applications from as young as 15, or after they attained Form 3 level. With Hong Kong youngsters generally not having much chance to come into contact with horses, we hope such a change enabling them to receive professional training at an earlier age, will give them more time to prepare themselves and hone their skills to maximize their chances of becoming elite sportsmen. So if you or a member of your family is interested, please don’t hesitate to apply before the deadline on 27 July.
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