Feyenoord (Rotterdam, Netherlands)

Club name: Feyenoord

Team name: Feyenoord (Rotterdam, Netherlands)

Country: The Kingdom Of The Netherlands

Year of foundation: 1908

About team: In the beginning the football club from Rotterdam was called Wilhelmina, than changed the name for Hillesluise, once more for Celeritas till the actual one Feyenoord in 1912 after the district of it's home town. The Club is the 15 times Champion of the country, 13 times of the Netherlands Cup and 4 times winner of the Super Cup. The season 2018/2019 of the Eredivisie - the top tier of Netherlands Feyenoord has finished on a third position. It's highest success on the international level are the European Cup in 1970 and two UEFA Cups in 1974 and 2002.

About Academy:

In the beginning the football club from Rotterdam was called Wilhelmina, than changed the name for Hillesluise, once more for Celeritas till the actual one Feyenoord in 1912 after the district of it's home town.

The Club is the 15 times Champion of the country, 13 times of the Netherlands Cup and 4 times winner of the Super Cup. The season 2018/2019  of the Eredivisie - the top tier of Netherlands Feyenoord has finished on a third position. 

It's highest success on the international level are the European Cup in 1970 and two UEFA Cups in 1974 and 2002.

It's Academy is considered the leading one not only in Netherlands, but worldwide, and was recognized the best one of the country for 5 years in a row since 2009.

There is no other Academy with more players - participants of the World Cup 2014 in Brasil. Interestingly for the match against the national team of the host country the Louis van Gaal team had 6 Feyenoord Academy former players.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst  Robin van Persie, Jordy Clasie, Stefan de Vrij, Jonathan Guzman, Bruno Martins Indi, Daryl Janmaat, Georginio Wijnaldum... a long list of the Academy's graduates who became top players. Their names are familiar even for those who are interested in football only during world or European Championships. 

The young players of the Academy develop in the philosophy of enjoyment of playing and training process. Meanwhile the coaching staff is rather guiding the players than giving them ready solutions. Particular attention is paid to the development of the technical skills.

The categories from U-8 to U-11 are amateurs, those from U-12 to U-19 are part of the professional preparation. Mostly local people train in the Academy, but each category has it's scouters who are searching for young talents not only on the tournaments, but on school competitions and street matches. Foreign players are rather an exception.

Junior categories (U-8 to U-10) have their regional competitions and the national Championship start the U14s. Feyenoord teams regulary take part in the international tournaments. The senior team matches are always full (3 grounds of the training center have 1000 persons capacity.)

As for the team representing Feyenoord in the Spartak Cup this year, it is composed of the players mostly born in 2003 and some even younger of 2004. 

This team is the Dutch Championship winner of the current season 2018/2019. Three of it's players - Giuliany Ben-David dos Santos, Mimeirhel Benita and Kaj van der Veldt are part of the national team in their category. Most of the players have joined the Academy at 9 years old. Two of them Shiloh 't Zand and Giuliany Ben-David dos Santos have already signed contracts with the club.