In the same summer, Spain won the Men's World Cup, the U19 European Championship and the U19 European Championship. The country is also the reigning European men's champion and the reigning world women's champion.
Javier Gomez is a former coach in Barcelona's youth system, has a degree in sports psychology and is the founder of the Spanish Academy Football Association. He came to Sweden ten years ago and started working with youth football.
I remember being shocked when I got here.
“Horrible”
In Sweden, great importance is placed on everyone being allowed to participate and everyone being treated equally. Coaches are usually parents who work voluntarily, and results are not counted until the age of twelve.
"I think it's terrible, a disaster. Why play without results? How can you push them to become a good footballer?" says Gomez.
In Spain, every person who coaches a youth team must be trained and licensed. Many teams have similar playing philosophies, young referees are trained through the federation and not in the clubs, and results are counted from an early age.
Need change?
Every five years football is renewed. Barcelona under Guardiola, that football was really good. That football doesn't exist anymore. That's why I think that associations also need to be renewed.
I have spoken to those in charge here in Skåne and they say "we have been working like this for 40 years, we don't need to change anything".
Gomez feels that there is no proper investment in Swedish football until it is too late.
It's quite late to invest when they are already 17. I think you have to invest in those who are six or seven years old.
Sef's academy developer Thomas Hasselgren also sees areas for development in Swedish youth football, but emphasizes that we have our model for a reason.
"We have a public health perspective, everyone should join in. We are good at taking care of people," says Hasselgren.
I don't think it affects the final product whether you compete or not. However, the quality of individual matches and training sessions is important.
Tough with Swedish medal
Sweden has many children who play football, and it is not possible to have trained coaches for all of them.
So it has to be built a lot on parental involvement in the beginning. Otherwise it will be new costs and too expensive to play sports. The level of training is not always good, but they do the best they can.
Can Sweden go far in a World Cup with the youth football we have today?
"It's probably tough to win a medal for Sweden in the future, but it can happen. I'm not going to say it's impossible, but it's tough," says Hasselgren.
+ Player training
The methodology, the way they work, they are extremely skilled and structured. You see it as an education and a lifelong learning. I think sometimes we jump a little and move forward too quickly. Which means there are gaps in the education that mean that when you get older you miss things.
+ Work together
The elite clubs, the grassroots clubs, the district, the association. There is a tendency for there to be opposites and us against them. And I think that is very unfortunate, because I think we need each other. Collaboration is the key to achieving success.
+ Trainer
We often talk about resources, raising the status of youth football in general. That it should be nice to be a youth coach. We have some talented coaches, but it takes a very long time before they become elite coaches.
I want there to be more resources in youth football so that we can invest in better coaching training, so coaches have better opportunities, both in elite clubs and in grassroots football.
