Marcus: Real Madrid VS Barcelona

Marcus believe in the philosophy of nurturing the next generation of players to be ready to play floorball for the team. This is the reason why the average age of the team is about 19.5 years old.

‘I believe in training and nurturing players from a young age to play floorball with the right attitude, techniques and character. This allows players to learn the right things at a young age and to grow up to become better players.’

In the floorball scene in Singapore, not many clubs pay attention to the development of younger players, most are contended with their current batch of players. As a result, when the players get older and the need to find new blood comes, they have no young players to call upon.

‘I like Skools because I think they have a renewal system in their club. They have good first team players but at the same time, they train their younger players to break into the first team. This keeps the first team players on their toes and gives motivation for the younger players to improve. This is the system that we want to have in Agape.’

‘As a young team, we have much to learn and work on. But I do believe that we have the right philosophy both in terms of nurturing younger players and the way we play the game. With time and commitment, this team will be able to improve. But of course, this is a long and hard process because it starts with identifying the right players, spending time with them to coach them, giving them the chance to shine on court. However, this is a method that will pay off in the future.’

‘Top teams should start their own academy and train their own young players instead of merely poaching them from other clubs. It’s easy to poach due to the reputation that top clubs have, but what it shows is that these teams are not interested in spending time with the players to coach them and help them improve.’

‘Of course it’s time-consuming to train an unpolished gem and coach someone who has potential as compared to taking a player that is good from another club in the hope of boosting the strength of your team. Well, just think between Real Madrid who buys their players as compared to teams like Arsenal and Barcelona who spends time training their younger players.’