“Nova Trade” once again supports the development of children’s sport and begins a noble and fruitful partnership with the youth academy of FC Hebar 1918

It has recently been 1 year since the restart of the youth academy of FC Hebar 1918. This is the occasion for a conversation with the director of the “academy”, Spas Spasov. We met him before one of the training sessions of the young players at the Georgi Benkovski sports base.

Mr Spasov, you recently marked 1 year of activity of the revived Hebar youth academy. Do you remember what was here 12 months ago, when you started work with your colleagues from the academy’s new coaching team?

Of course. Hebar’s squads had no more than 50 children, who were registered to take part in the regional children’s and youth football championships.

There were 3 coaches, and the facilities were, to put it mildly, neglected.

Over this one year the work has been concentrated in 2 main directions - modernising the facilities, and selecting and training our young football talents.

At the moment the Hebar academy already has over 350 children, 100 of whom are in the Sports School.

They are divided into 17 different groups - preparatory, children, younger and older age. A total of 12 coaches look after their training. These include two goalkeeper coaches, 1 conditioning coach and 9 for the different age groups.

Some of the boys take part in the Plovdiv football championships - 5, 7, 9 and 11-a-side - where their opponents are the representative teams of Botev (Plovdiv), Lokomotiv (Plovdiv), Spartak (Plovdiv) and other teams.

The older ones - U 15 and U 19 - take part in the elite championships of the “Sofia” zone. Only the U 17 team is a member of the regional football championship.

You recently announced another sponsorship contract. Your partner is now also the company “Nova Trade”, which will supply “Bachkovo” spring water for the club’s needs?

Yes, that is right. I am glad that we will now also be using the product of “Nova Trade”. This is the place to say that we did not put our trust in the “Bachkovo” brand by chance. It has established itself on the Bulgarian market as one of the quality waters.

The quantities of water that we will receive as part of the contract will fully meet the academy’s needs at this stage.

What are your observations so far? Do the young boys already have established habits of drinking enough water?

Unfortunately - no. That is exactly what we, together with the colleagues from the academy’s coaching team, are emphasising. We explain to the children that taking in enough water is an important precondition for the proper growth and development of every human body, and especially of young athletes.

Because during physical exertion large amounts of salts are lost, and to replace them straight away it is important to drink water.

And it should be consumed before, during and after training. In moderate amounts, of course, so as not to hamper the functioning of the body.

In your opinion, what was decisive for this boom of young people from Pazardzhik and the region wanting to train football at Hebar?

First of all, I will start with the conditions. To expect willingness to give your all and to develop from an athlete, you must first create the conditions for them.

With the decisive involvement of Pazardzhik Municipality, and above all our mayor Todor Popov, wonders happened at the Georgi Benkovski sports base in less than 1 year.

At the moment the club has 3 natural-grass training pitches, one modern latest-generation artificial pitch and one official pitch. In practice, all these fields and pitches are used, to a greater or lesser extent, by the various teams of the academy. A separate changing room was also built specially for children and juniors.

Second comes the work of the coaches, whose qualification and retraining the club constantly takes care of.

We are one of the few clubs in Bulgaria with a foreign methodologist, attached mainly to the needs of the academy.

Third, the success of our model rests on tight organisation.

All of this combined has clearly made the parents of these children trust Hebar for the training and professional growth of the young talents in the future.