Football is booming in the USA – and Eintracht are playing their part in it after holding five hugely popular summer camps for football-crazy youngsters in five different cities across five different states.
In Cleveland (Ohio) and Nashville (Tennessee), 60 children between the ages of eight and 18 laced their boots at each camp, while there were 30 participants each in Marietta (Georgia) and Evansville (Indiana). In Madison (Wisconsin), 130 boys and girls took part in the largest of the five camps at USL League One side Forward Madison FC, with whom Eintracht have had a partnership for over two years. The camp in Cleveland, meanwhile, was run in conjunction with Cleveland Force; Eintracht were supported by ‘The Soccer School’ at the camps at the other three locations.
Armin Kraaz, Eintracht’s Head of Sports Americas, and Nicolai Adam, Head of International Sports Projects, were both on site to oversee the projects. Both club representatives possess the UEFA Pro Licence coaching badge. Former USA international Brent Goulet attended the camps in Nashville, Marietta and Evansville as a representative of ’The Soccer School’, a football school based in the state of Tennessee. The 59-year-old was in Germany between 1991 and 2004 as both a player and a coach.
Coaching seminars in Ohio and Wisconsin
In addition to the camps, Eintracht organised two coaching clinics in Cleveland and Madison, each attended by 20 coaches. Kraaz and Adam touched on a number of topics during these seminars, including tactics and training content and principles, as well as highlighting the importance of performing well off the pitch too – at school, for example.
The camps and clinics introduced American youngsters to Eintracht Frankfurt’s football and training content, and offered them training sessions at a higher level. Furthermore, the Eagles were given the opportunity to develop important contacts across the country at several locations and thereby increase the visibility of the Eintracht Frankfurt brand in the US market – starting at grassroots level.
