Interview of Zaur Hashimov, coordinator of the Zira Football Academy, to Offsideplus.az
- 2024/25 season is coming to an end. How do you evaluate this season for the Zira Football Academy?
- We are seeing the fruits of our work over the past 3 years this season. If we talk about specific results, the U15 team of our academy played in the playoffs, and the U16 is in the semifinals. In addition, the U17 continues to fight for the championship. The U19 team, which plays in the Youth League, has a chance to win bronze medals. In other words, all 4 of our teams have joined the race for high places this year. But the result is not a priority for us. We have not set such a goal for the children and coaches. No matter how pleasant the result is, the most important aspect in our work is the development of children. One of the things that made us most happy this season was that players from all age groups were invited to the national teams. In other words, our players are representing Zira in the U16, U17, U18 and U19 national teams. This is considered one of our greatest achievements in the 2024/25 season.
- Last year, there weren't that many players from Zira in the national teams?
- We only provided players to the U17 national team. This year, two of our players even received invitations from the U16 team. They participated in the friendly matches against Belarus last week. 4 of our players are regularly invited to the U17 national team. We also had 2 representatives in the U19. Do you know why this is nice? Because when we took these players, they were 13, 14 years old. Those who were invited to the national teams are only graduates of the Zira Football Academy. In other words, we didn't attract them from somewhere, but rather, we raised them ourselves.
- When you spoke about the results of the academy, you mentioned the newcomers - 15-19 years old. What about the situation in the younger age groups?
- As for the younger players, there are no goals set for them regarding the result. Children aged 8-13 treat football as entertainment. We ourselves accept this reality. Experience shows that it is necessary to give all our strength to children over 13 years old. For example, there was a goalkeeper in our academy who was a candidate for the national team. He was 14 years old. All his indicators were in place, he was promising. However, unexpectedly at the age of 14 he gave up football and chose boxing. Or several of our 13-year-old players changed their minds and began to engage in a completely different field. Nevertheless, the preparation process and development of children aged 8-13 are under our control. We have good coaches, they constantly conduct selection. We have built the system as follows: the coaches of our academy are already starting from the U-14 teams, they are more seriously engaged in football, they attach greater importance to their development.
- It is gratifying that in the last rounds of the Misli Premier League, young footballers are attracting attention in the Zira squad.
- One of our main tasks is to train footballers for the main team. In the match against Sabail, the academy graduate Ramiz Muradov made his debut in the Zira squad this season. The names of 5 academy footballers were mentioned in the match protocol. Even 17-year-old Ahliman Suleymanzadeh is participating in the main team's training. Hopefully, in the near future, we will see more academy graduates in the Premier League in the Zira squad.
- How do you think, have you achieved the goal set by the management this season?
- The goal of all of us is to train good footballers for Zira club and the national teams. Let me note one thing in the work process: we are not satisfied with just training footballers. We are trying to shape children as personalities. They can become future coaches, managers, and football functionaries. The management of "Zira" has improved the conditions for the academy over the past 2-3 years. For example, if previously there were 12-13 coaches working at the academy, now their number is 34. In addition to the head coach, their assistants also work in different age groups. The number of our goalkeeper coaches has reached 4. 4 doctors work in the academy teams. All this is the result of systematic work.
- There are probably also shortcomings in the work process. What is the biggest difficulty facing the Zira Football Academy at the moment?
- Our only difficulty is that not all the football players train in the same place. The children go to training on the fields we rent in different parts of Baku. This is the only negative aspect that currently does not satisfy me. The management is trying to resolve this issue, work is underway on it.
- When will the selection of football players for the academy take place?
- We have selections both in winter and summer. Since our U-15 team has finished its performance in the championship, selections are underway in this age group. 15-16 players came to the review. In addition, there are several teams we cooperate with, and we attract promising players from those teams to the academy. Selections will soon begin in other age groups as well.
Idman.biz
