Watford striker Joshua King, 30, has hit back at the price Norwegian kids have to pay to attend a two-day goalkeeper school in Oslo – with a Liverpool coach being the highlight.
– That’s pure greed! There is no explanation in the world that can make me understand this price for two days, says King.
VG said yesterday On how Rustad Abildsø SK (RASK) and private company Oslo Keeperskole AS lure up to 120 children and youths to pay NOK 3,350 for a two-day goalkeeper school at the beginning of June.
Coaches from Oslo Keeperskole will be in charge of coaching, as well as John Achterberg from Liverpool. If children are going to eat and drink, they must be purchased additionally.
Both the Oslo Sports Bureau and the Norwegian Football Association responded. So does Joshua King:
– 120 children and a goalkeeper coach from Liverpool? I think this is a bad sign for the development of Norwegian football. That’s not how you get talent, he tells VG.
Last year, Joshua King arranged a free soccer school for 200 children on the eastern edge of Oslo. This summer, the number of participants will increase to 400. Everyone will receive clothes, a soccer ball, a gym bag and food.
And with the support of our sponsors, everything is free.
Allocate seats purposefully
Some places at the football school are open for regular enrollment, while others are ‘spread out’ to local football clubs on the eastern edge of Oslo, so you can be sure to end up with lower-income families.
– Frode Grodås and Erik Thorstvedt brought up for free at my football school. They did so because they know the potential of young Norwegian talent if given the opportunity, regardless of their parents’ finances, King told VG.
He grew up in Rumsas and saw with his own eyes how poor finances could lead to exclusion from the sport.
The topic became the focus of the English Premier League striker:
– I had friends who were not allowed to join. It seems a bit unfair when a group of friends are hanging out and playing soccer in daily life, there are some who don’t have parents who are equally as financially savvy. Then someone comes home from soccer school and talks about it, while others feel a little outside, as King previously stated. TV 2.
– Cheaper Offers
Oslo Keeperskole AS team leader Lars Hoyle praises Joshua King’s initiative. At the same time, he maintains that his company doesn’t make much money, and that they offer soccer schools much cheaper at other times of the year.
Oslo Keeperskole also collaborates with clubs on the eastern edge of Oslo in everyday life.
According to Howell, the Goalkeeping School in June aims to be a positive initiative towards young goalkeepers – and on the initiative of RASK IL.
Hoel also confirms that John Achterberg of Liverpool will not take care of 120 children and youth on his own:
– We will use coaches from Oslo Keeperskole AS as his assistants in the groups, in order to ensure that everyone has a good goalkeeper training experience with learning exercises. Everyone (parents included) gets the opportunity to attend a lecture. They got the goalkeeper jerseys from Select, he told VG.
There are logistical reasons for participants to buy their own food and drink, Hoyle says.
Critical Sports Head
The Norwegian Sports Federation held a board meeting in Hamar this week. The main topic of the meeting was the financial barriers in Norwegian sport.
Sports chief Berit Kellul, on Thursday morning, met with the Norwegian media in a digital encounter. There she made a number of points that would prevent financial exclusion in children’s sports in the future.
Facing the VG case as of Wednesday, Kjøll expressed that the NIF will look into the case:
– I wasn’t familiar with this. But I think here we have to get into the matter. I think this sounds scary. It’s exciting and that’s not what we want in Norwegian sport. We want to check it out, she says.
silence about numbers
The Oslo goalkeeping school does not want to explain how much Liverpool coach John Ashterberg will charge for participating in a two-day Norwegian football school.
Yesterday, RASK leader Yarley Berkeley claimed he was not aware of the amount.
Berkeley has highlighted the goalkeeping school as an attempt to create positive buzz after merging two sports teams.
We are very proud that as a small club we can do this with good partners. This would be a goalkeeping school for anyone who wants to get involved. For our members, he said, we will support the cost to show that it pays to be part of a club that thinks broadly and develops goalkeepers.
Berkeley continues:
– The focus here was to find something that would be great and no less attractive to the local community with a focus on goalkeepers. Here we believe that there are very few offers from the region and the NFF for us in football at large, and therefore we have a collaboration with the Oslo Goalkeeper School.
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