by Gianluca Palanca | America Oggi
The first AS Roma Academy USA opens in NY
New York. Great news coming to New York for all Roma fans and others, the AS Roma Academy NY will hold tryouts this spring. The project is being led by Dino Hamzic, Director of Operations, together with Richard Knox, Technical Director. The project will be followed from Italy by Alessio Fazi who will act as the Technical Advisor for the NY academy.
We went to interview the three main members of the Roma Academy to learn more about the details of the project.
Dino Hamzic was born in Bosnia and grew up between Germany and the United States after fleeing his country due to the war. He began his football adventure with Rush Soccer in Idaho, one of the largest youth clubs in the U.S., began to coach from a young age and then moved to NY where he worked with the New York Red Bulls and other local clubs and then moved to the Fox Soccer Academy of Christian Fuchs (current Leicester City FC player) as Academy Director gaining considerable success for the work done in the development and organization of the company.
– Where did the idea for Roma Academy NY come from?
“Last summer I was in Bosnia, my country of origin, where I wanted to open a soccer school together with a local coach who was also the coach of Edin Dzeko in the youth teams. Unfortunately, because of Covid it did not happen, and I decided to return to New York, where I learned of the opportunity to open an academy in Westchester. I immediately asked Richard if he wanted to be part of this project and we got in touch with AS Roma. From September to January, we worked non-stop to bring this project to life and now we are ready. We launched the project to the public about three weeks ago, we will start with tryouts in April and then participate in the league play starting this fall. We will primarily have two locations, Westchester, where our Travel Teams will train and play matches, and Manhattan where we will offer supplemental training as well as various camps and individual sessions.”
– Why choose AS Roma Academy?
“The main goal we want to convey to parents is that we want to be different from the experiences they’ve had with other New York based soccer clubs in recent years. There are a few things I want to highlight, for example our Pre-Academies will have in-house leagues, where we want to create a fun, safe and competitive environment for the players. We want to make sure, that our players are in the right level for their abilities. We aim to have exceptional programs with exceptional coaches and transparent communication with parents. We want to make sure that we provide the best experience we can when parents enroll their kids in our academy. In addition, in the last few years, thanks to American ownership, there have been many players who have gone on to trail and played for AS Roma from the United States. Some of these players are still playing for the club at the youth level, women’s team and men’s team, such as Bryan Reynolds who just signed for the Giallorossi at just 19 years old from FC Dallas.”
– What leagues will you be participating in? Local leagues or national level leagues like MLS NEXT? How will the academy players be selected?
“We will start in the EDP and NYCSL leagues with our U9 to U18 Academy teams, As for the MLS NEXT, that is not part of our plans at this moment. For our Pre-Academy, we will have an internal league where players will have a safe, fun and competitive environment to grow.
As far as player selection, it will vary by age group and level, the Pre-Academy youth start with the basics and is more of a developmental phase of the young player. When we get to the more competitive age groups, official tryouts will be held to select players. There will be multiple teams for the Pre-Academy, but when we get to play 11 vs. 11 we will try to keep the focus on a single team per age group”.
Now it’s Alessio Fazi‘s turn to follow the AS Roma Academy NY project from Italy. Fazi, boasts a great deal of experience as a coach and has been with AS Roma for over six years where he is primarily responsible for the supervision and coordination of the academies.
– What will be your role within the Academy?
“My role is advising the International academies on the technical side, for this reason I will have direct contact with club directors for the use of the AS Roma methodology and to monitor the growth process of the players who are an integral part of our Club”.
– Will Italian coaches be sent or will we rely on on-site technicians?
“The work on the field is mainly managed by on-site technicians, especially in this period of Covid, but the project provides for a constant and direct participation with at least two annual visits in addition to the usual monthly comparison through video calls. Our working system foresees a continuous exchange of information and videos. In addition, AS Roma provides the Academy with a system where you have the ability to create sessions, which must be approved in line with the criteria of our methodology, and to use the exercises shared by me or by the coaches within the project to be able to calendar the training sessions having a complete picture of what has been trained”.
– What will be the relationship between NY and Rome? Will events be organized in Italy to “evaluate” the NY Academy’s players?
“The relationship between the NY Academy and AS Roma is continuous. We have direct communication with the club directors in New York, there is a continuous dialogue with the coaches and, we have monthly meetings via zoom. Our academies around the world have a direct channel with AS Roma to be able to organize Training Experiences in our fantastic city that allow boys and girls to be coached by our Academy coaches in our facilities during their time in Rome.”
– Why would a parent choose Roma Academy NY over a New York “local club”?
“I believe that the main objective of a parent in these situations is to ensure that their child has an excellent experience, both from a personal point of view and from a football point of view. These are key elements of our training philosophy and methodology, in addition players have the opportunity to to go to Rome every year to participate in showcase matches against AS Roma Academy teams and other local clubs.”
For more information you can contact AS Roma Academy NY at email: academy.newyork@asroma.it or by phone at: 646-907-4131.
Source: America Oggi