Two of the most promising boys from Balzan’s Under-17 squad have been selected to go to Italy to trial for a week in December.
Balzan has been one of the most active nurseries in Malta in recent years bringing over several top professional Italian youth coaches to hold sessions for Balzan FC players including Fabrizio del Rosso who is now the assistant coach of the Juventus primavera team and former AC Milan player Andrea Icardi who is now the Coaching Director of Milan Soccer School in Australia.
The two players – Mikhail Sciberras and Gianfranco Micallef – were spotted by AC Milan Academy Sydney Head Coach Andrea Icardi who was here in Malta back in April.
Mikhail is one of the Malta Under-16 national team goalkeepers and has already been called up by coach Ivan Zammit with the Balzan FC senior team in recent Premier League matches. On the other hand. Gianfranco is a dynamic offensive midfielder who has been also training and is forming part of Balzan’s first team squad.
The boys will be trialling with Italian side Prato. Prato is a professional club in Tuscany close to Florence. Its youth sector has produced number of quality players who play in Serie A clubs in the area such as Siena and Fiorentina, including current Italian international Alessandro Diamanti who now plays at Bologna.
During their stay in Prato, both players will be accompanied by the Balzan FC Nursery Head Coach Silvan Ciscaldi and Balzan FC Main Sponsor and Honorary President Mr Anton Tagliaferro., who will both be in Italy watching both players during this unique experience.
Tagliaferro said “Balzan’s teams at all levels – from the under 13’s to the first team in the Premier League – are performing well this season. As Balzan’s main sponsor , this is very pleasing and I remain committed to the dual objective of Balzan maintaining our Premier League status as well as to improving the club at all other levels . This latest initiative is further evidence of our commitment to our Nursery – we remain keen to give Maltese boys the opportunity to greatly improve their skills at Balzan through the employment of top coaches. The trip to Prato should be a great experience for the Mikhail and Gianfranco while it also gives them the opportunity to showcase their skills at a top Italian Nursery.”
“Silvan has just returned from a week watching Juventus youth teams train at Vinovo and he learnt greatly from the experience. I am also in advanced negotiations with a top professional Italian youth coach coming to Balzan full time from 2013 with the aim being to take the club to the next level. We continue to dream of what we can achieve with the club and we are putting steps in place to try and make these dreams a reality in the next few years,” concluded Tagliaferro.