
GUWAHATI: The first clue came four years ago. Amine Gouiri was 13, playing for FC Bourgoin Jallieu, one of the myriad youth clubs in France. Week after week, he would score. Scouts of the biggest clubs in the country had travelled far to watch the puny kid play. All the big boys were there, writing down a ‘very impressive’ on their report cards before rushing off to inform their employers about a potential star. A few of those clubs decided to take the interest forward. Olympique Lyonnais went a step further and secured his signature: the first clue.
Clubs secure 13-year-olds every second day, but not many of these purchases are successful. Many fall by the wayside by the time they become men.Lyon, though, has a better system in place. A few months before Gouiri was brought into their fold, Lyon released a jaw-dropping statistic. “Twelve out of the 27 players in the first team in the 2012-13 season had come through the (Lyon) training centre.”
Julien Sokol, a Lyon scout, explains what it takes to nurture these 13-year-olds. It is — as expected — not for the faint-hearted. “Amine has always been a striker. To develop that ability, he has always played with and against older boys. This not only hardened him, but ensured that he came out of his comfort zone.”
There is a litany of evidence to point out that when it comes to developing young players, the best-laid plans of scouts and coaches don’t always go as intended. Cautionary tales — from Freddy Adu to Michael Johnson — are many. However, it looks like Gouiri hasn’t fallen into that trap. A sensational eight-goal burst at the U-17 European Championships gave him the Golden Boot in May. He’d already trained with Lyon’s first team by then.
Les Bleus’ coach Lionel Rouxel has identified this aspect as key in the growth graph of the 17-year-old. “They (the current U-17 players) have learned a lot of things at their club Academies. Three (one being Gouiri) have trained with the first team, and that tends to accelerate the development process.”
These are the sort of lessons which make young turks stand out in a tournament like the U-17 World Cup. Players with first-team minutes automatically shine because after training and facing cynical 30-year-old defenders who love nothing more than putting young players in their place, 15 and 16-year-olds seem like child’s play.
In the 148 minutes Gouiri has had so far, he’s netted four, topping the goal-scorer list. One of his greatest traits so far has been how he’s escaped his marker to run onto through balls. Gouiri can create that extra yard of space, is adept at out-muscling defenders, and knows when to pull the trigger.But, he does have his flaws: he doesn’t finish all that well when he only has the keeper to beat. However, realising that this aspect of his game is less than ideal, Gouiri has been putting in the hard yards at Lyon.“He has great movement and a solid game with his back to the goal,” Sokol says, adding that he was working extensively on one-on-one and one-on-two situations. “He still has to progress when facing goal.”