In June the Premier Palace Hotel had the honour of being the official sponsor of the Milan Junior Camp Kyiv 2010. The city’s premiere five-star hotel hosted World Camp International Ltd General Manager Marco Schembri and the famous coaches from the junior squads of Italian football giant AC Milan:

Gianluca ANGELUCCI
Pierluigi PRETE
Fabio TOCCI
Andrea CAVICCHIOLI
Cesare BEGGI
Nicola MATTEUCCI

They conducted football training camps for Ukrainian children for one week. Our Italian guests spoke with Premier Hotels about Ukraine’s up-and-coming football stars.

Marco Schembri:
First of all, I want to thank Premier Palace Hotel. It’s very important to have good accommodations when you work outside your own country. We are looking not only for supporters of AC Milan, but also trying to provide the skills and experience of Italian football to young people all over the world. And of course here in Ukraine we’re carefully looking for the “new” (Andriy) Shevchenko. Personally I’m very happy to be here – it’s a great country with great people! We enjoyed very good cooperation with Pravex Bank – part of the Intesa Sanpaolo group, the management of Obolon Stadium, and special thanks to the Premier Palace Hotel, which has made us feel at home.

PP: What is the most important thing for future champions to learn?
MS: AC Milan attracts a lot of potential champions. Our job is to stand behind them and let everyone’s dreams come true so that we can select the best talents. But the main thing a young football player must have to become a champion is talent and determination for sure.

PP: Which problems do you usually face when coaching children?
MS: The Milan Junior Camp deals with children of a wide range of ages, so we encounter several problems, though the most common are being unable to relocate the kids without their parents, the unknowns of their future physical structure, the risk of investing a lot of money on a future prospect, EU passports for such kids, etc. We must develop them into young men who are ready for the future even if they don’t become football players.

PP: Did you find any promising talent here?
MS: We worked with 120 young footballers – and all of them have potential, but of them seven showed considerable talent. They could be the “new Shevchenkos” (laughs). These lads could become real football players.

PP: What do you think about Ukrainian children?
Andrea Cavicchioli (coacher): “I’m very impressed by the education of the children in Ukraine! We have a lot of experience watching kids from around the world but Ukraine showed me a new level (of development). Education mirrors the family and our Ukrainian experience has been very positive. After two to three days of coaching we create a strong bond between ourselves and the kids. It’s something emotional and very important, generating a lot of positive feelings.

Interview by Natalia Romaniv

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