Following the VfB first team’s visit to Austin, Texas in 2022, there have been regular exchanges with the local football school there. A VfB Camp was held in the city for a third time and once again proved to be hugely popular among the participating children and their parents.
In addition to the training sessions and other football-related activities for the youngsters, VfB once again held coach development courses across the city. Within this framework, Dr Michael Stügelmaier (Head of Youth Academy Analysis, Data & Science) gave a talk on “Strategic Talent Development” to coaches from local clubs and high schools.
After the camp in Austin, the VfB contingent travelled on to Warwick, where a VfB football camp was held for the first time, with more than 80 boys and girls taking part in the three-day event at the Hudson Sports Complex. There has been a regular exchange programme with the German American Kickers from Trenton for a while now. This latest trip to the US also focused on the theory and practice of coach training.
Recently, a delegation from Trenton also visited Stuttgart and watched the 2-0 home win over Union Berlin, among other activities. The German American Kickers’ trip also included wide-ranging conversations with staff at the VfB youth academy, a stadium tour and several other meetings. The Kickers’ youth teams have participated in digital training sessions with the VfB academy for the last three years.
The U15s from the Solar Soccer Club, an academy that develops gifted youngsters, also made the trip to Stuttgart in mid-March. They played a friendly against their VfB contemporaries, which ended in a 2-0 win for the boys from Cannstatt. However, the focus of the visit was not the game itself, but rather intercultural interaction between the youngsters, as well as strengthening the ties between VfB and Solar.