Football never fails to bring people together
Dr. Suresh Letchmanan, Managing Director for the APAC region, together with his deputy Ms Julia Farr, Deputy Head of Southeast Asia & Youth Coach, conducted a 5-day football camp at Forrestfield United from the 2nd to the 6th of October.
It was the very first time that the eight times Bundesliga Champion Black and Yellows from North Rhine Westphalia had visited WA. Ballspielvereinigung Borussia (BVB) has cultivated a reputation for developing young talents and has remained focus on building a strong youth system and has received plaudits over the years on the investment of young talents and adhering to an attacking footballing philosophy. Throughout the years, they have produced some wonderful players like Jadon Sancho, Jude Bellingham, Erling Haaland and Marco Reus, to name a few.
Accompanying Suresh and Julia on this trip is Jörg Heinrich, a former German international player with 37 caps and an illustrious career in the European football leagues of some 20 years, having plied his trade in notable teams like Fiorentina, Union Berlin and BVB. Since retiring from playing, he has been involved in club management for more than 15 years and was the Assistant Manager with the BVB first team, a position he held in 2017. He is also the international youth coach at BVB Evonik Football Academy. Interestingly, a typical training session would be held around 3 to 4 times but owing to the enthusiasm exhibited by the GHD kids throughout this training, a whopping 10 sessions were conducted this round in Perth instead.
This camp is the first in the initial relationship between the two clubs and is also the first ever that’s been held in Perth. The longer-term picture is to establish a potential BVB academy or football school at Forrestfield with direct links back to the BVB youth academy in Germany. BVB has also created a youth partnership with another football club, Wynnum Wolves, in Brisbane and the hope is for youth teams from both the Brisbane club and Forrestfield to travel across the country to play against each other. Forrestfield also intends to send their under-15 team each year to the annual BVB tournament, along with other BVB-affiliated clubs from around the world. The future plan would also be to have a BVB touring squad visit Australia and potentially play at Optus Stadium.
On their final day in Perth on 6th October, WAGBA Committee Member Torsten Ketelsen OAM was graciously invited to attend a dinner on behalf of WAGBA in celebration of the BVB Academy Football Camp. Held at Quest East Perth at Adelaide Terrace, the dinner was hosted by Paul Mansfield, President of Forrestfield FC, to thank BVB not only for their support, but also for the clinic conducted at FFC over the past week. Attended by a small group of around 15 people, the event proved to be an amazing opportunity for all attendees to get to know each other within a casual and intimate setting.
