David Camhi has a goal that most in Taiwan would not even dare to dream of — Taiwan qualifying for the soccer World Cup.
That goal, however, can only be achieved if more attention is given to youth soccer in the country, he says.
Frenchman Camhi shares the same vision as Britons Daniel Calvert and Michael Chandler, so they started a children’s soccer camp in 2004 to promote “the beautiful game” and build a foundation for the sport by teaching the fundamentals to children between three and nine years old.
PHOTO: CNA
They launched the program because of their love of the game and desire to see Taiwan do better in international soccer competitions, Camhi said at Shi Pai Junior High School’s soccer field, where the team runs the Master Football Academy (MFA), a weekly camp.
“Taiwan is probably the only country in Asia where soccer is not a popular sport,” Camhi said on a sunny morning as he watched Calvert, the camp’s head coach, lead dozens of children in a warm-up with their parents looking on.
Children at the camp participate in training sessions every Saturday and play in real games in a league every Sunday, going up against teams from other Taipei academies at the Dazhi Riverside Park.
About 300 children attend the weekly camp, which sells coupons and does not require full registration. That means children can join and drop out at any time, said Camhi, certified as a soccer coach by the French Football Federation and the Football Association of England.
The camp’s participants have different motivations.
Yvonne Neddo, whose five-year-old son Gabriel signed on with the camp about three months ago, said she thought soccer would be appropriate for her child.
“Soccer is a good sport, aerobic exercise for the body, and keeps you ‘on your toes’ — nothing heavyweight for muscle building,” she said.
A fourth-grade boy surnamed Chao joined the camp when he was riding a bike with his father — a soccer player in college — in the park two years ago and saw a training session.
“I think he was influenced by his father’s love of the game. They watched games on television together all the time, and he found out that he loved it too,” Mrs Chao said.
A Mr Huang said his daughter, one of the few girls in the male-dominated camp, “joined the camp purely for exercise.”
The academy is very happy with how the camp is developing, although it means the coaches “have almost no days off,” Camhi said, but the academy has even bolder plans ahead.
It will hold an event in collaboration with the Ministry of Education in May to promote youth soccer and the upcoming soccer World Cup in South Africa. The academy is also hoping to sign a contract in the near future to hold a Tottenham Hotspur International Player Development Course summer camp from July 12 to July 16 in Taipei.
Tottenham Hotspur, from the English Premier League, sees potential in Taiwan’s market and is scheduled to bring in six coaches and an ambassador who is a former player for the camp, which will consist of 50 youth players and 50 underprivileged children, Calvert said.
“We hope that this camp will be a starting point for a long-term relationship with the team to help Taiwan develop its youth soccer,” he said.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
RSS