The Balzan Nursery has ended its pre-season preparations which saw its teams participate in overseas tournaments as well as further visits from professional Italian coaches.
Following on from the visit of Juventus youth coach Fabrizio del Rosso earlier this summer, Balzan welcomed Riccardo Tumiatti to the Nursery. Tumiatti, who spent many years as a youth coach at AC Milan, ran several training sessions for various Balzan youth squads together with Balzan Nursery’s head coach Silvan Ciscaldi.
Two of these squads – the Under-9 and Under-17 squads – travelled to Sicily where the Under-9 side finished second in a tournament, losing to an AC Milan Academy team on penalties and the Under-17 side had a one-week of training, defeating two Sicilian teams and ending another game in a draw in three friendly matches.
Balzan has invested heavily in its youth sector this summer by signing up several prominent new youth coaches and players over the summer months. The extra investment in Balzan Nursery is being sponsored by Investors Mutual which is headed by Maltese-Australian Anton Tagliaferro.
“I am very happy to invest in the Balzan Nursery and I am confident that we will develop many excellent players in the next few years,” said Tagliaferro.
“While the Balzan club’s priority is to do well again in the Premier Division, I am also very keen to develop the next generation of players for the first team through our own Nursery. In fact through our contacts in Italy, we are sending two of our most promising youth players to Italy in December to train and trial with Italian teams, while our Nursery head coach Silvan Ciscaldi and first team coach Ivan Zammit are travelling to Torino to watch Juventus’ various squads (including Juve’s first team) train at Juve’s Vinovo training centre.”
“My commitment to the youth sector at Balzan remains strong so I encourage all Maltese boys between the ages of 5 and 14 years old who are keen to improve their football skills in a professional environment to register with our Nursery,” concluded Anton Tagliaferro.