By David Gold
June 26 – Idenitification cards for young Russian footballers will help create a national side which can compete well at the 2018 World Cup, according to Alexander Zorkov, the deputy general secretary of the Russian Football Union (RFU).
Speaking to insideworldfootball, Zorkov said: “We have built a list of youngsters, 150 or so, and we will introduce an individual ID card for each.
“We have scouts and other officials who will follow these players’ careers, and this list of 150 is the least we need for our national team, who we hope will play in the 2018 World Cup.”
In January, the Union of Football Players and Coaches in Russia delivered a scathing assessment of youth football in Russia, revealing that only two Russian players born between 1990 and 1992 are playing regularly for leading clubs in the country’s Premier League.
The influx of foreign players into the country in recent years has exacerbated the problem, with youth clubs and schools in decline, prompting Zorkov’s reforms.
In the Premier League, no more than seven foreigners can be playing for one team at any point during a match, which is meant to encourage the use of Russian youngsters.
“We saw often there were young players in the Premier League who didn’t play much for their clubs because we have many foreigners,” explained Zorkov.
“Recently we undertook some measures to have a certain number of Russian young players on the pitch.
“Some matchdays the clubs have to call players from their second teams as they don’t have enough players and some of these youngsters showed better results than players in the first team.”
One initiative which has been a great success is the Teenage Football League of Russia, which holds 20 tournaments each year for youngsters between eight and 15-years-old.
Formed in 1993, 200 of its graduates have made it as professionals, including Chelsea winger Yuri Zhirkov, and Zorkov believes there are many more players like him out there, but that the key is identifying and training them.
“The most important thing is to create a good environment and make sure they don’t just sit on the bench,” said Zorkov.
“We are attempting to create a campus for these young players, a special training camp for them to train.
“We always had a lot of talented players and the most important thing is to find them.”
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