WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. — A special clinic brought a new type of sports pro to the Lehigh Valley this week, showing that the game of soccer has more style to it than just scoring goals.
“Press it…then your foot needs to bring the ball up," Aguśka Mnich, a multiple-time professional freestyle football world champion, explained to a group of young players, Wednesday, trying to show how to spin the ball up from her legs, popping it into the air.
- Professional freestyle football competitors Aguśka Mnich and Patrick Bäurer came to the Lehigh Valley to demonstrate to youth soccer players new and stylish ways to look what soccer can be
- Players in the clinic are part of the Paris Saint Germain Academy Pennsylvania program, which began last June
- The program hopes to grow in the future, connecting people with and using the resources of the international soccer brand
As part of a tour of the United States, freestyle football competitors Mnich and Patrick Bäurer came by the area to showcase and teach tricks to children in the Paris Saint Germain Academy program's winter training.
There, about 30 children were split by age into groups led by the two pros to learn how to do various tricks and control the ball in ways they've never been taught to before.
The kids observed the pros doing performance routines before learning the basics of how to pick up and handle the ball in different and flashy ways.
"It's beautiful, because I would have loved to have someone when I started freestyle that would tell me what to do, how to improve quicker or better," Mnich said about the opportunity to travel and teach young soccer players.
"I am so happy to just work with all the kids all over the world and tell them how to do particular tricks to get better in such a shorter period of time."
Opening young players' eyes
Paris Saint Germain Academy Pennsylvania head coach and technical director Malik Krcic said the event was meant to open the players' eyes to aspects of soccer beyond just playing the game competitively.
"It's completely different than the game where they're showing a sense of creativity, with which moves, they're gonna do," Krcic said. "Body control and the ball control is unmatched, it's unreal. It's like they're breakdancing with the ball.
"Freestyle football is "a huge thing that's coming about in Europe and all across the world and across social media. A lot of the players, they want to be able to do these cool moves."
"It was fun," participant Madison Fuller said. "It was definitely different than normal soccer, but it was really cool to watch and see the cool tricks that they could perform."
Late in the clinic, parents even got involved — competing in how long they could keep a ball balanced on their backs.
A new club in the valley with links abroad
The tryout-based Pennsylvania academy of Paris Saint-Germain offers competitive and after school programs in addition to various camps and clinics.
Paris Saint-Germain F.C. is a top-division French professional soccer organization with teams for men and women that feature superstar players such as Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi.
The team also has active youth European football teams and other sports departments in its lineup.
The Pennsylvania Academy is among a network of PSG academies that span 15 countries with about 20,000 players, according to the organization's website.
After the program was announced last February, coaches say it got its start in the Lehigh Valley just this past June, with tryouts and summer camps.
Krcic, a regional native, said he had played the sport in Europe before beginning his coaching career and being approached by PSG for the initiative in the Lehigh Valley.
He coaches alongside Gideon Baah, a former New York Redbulls player who has also played internationally, and other professional training staff.
Eventually go nationwide
Krcic says the program has nearly 40 members, but is looking to grow at a reasonable pace.
"We're not trying to grow huge in the first year," Krcic said. "We're going to take time and add — add some quality talent and, hopefully, bring another big club into this area."
Parents of children involved with the program said the experience has been good, especially with the resources of the PSG network.
Krcic said the academy program as a whole, not just in the Lehigh Valley, is young. He said he believes the idea is to show the PSG brand to more as popularity for the sport continues to grow in the United States, and to foster talent among the young players, potentially to connect to professional leagues.
"My intention for this area, and to add this club, is just to grow the overall soccer experience in this area to be better and to be one of the best in Pennsylvania." <br/>Malik Krcic, head coach and technical director at Paris Saint Germain Academy Pennsylvania
"My intention for this area, and to add this club, is just to grow the overall soccer experience in this area to be better and to be one of the best in Pennsylvania," Krcic said.
"And then from Pennsylvania, we go East Coast and then eventually across the country."
Youth soccer programs exist at many levels throughout the region, such as the Lehigh Valley Youth Soccer League, Allentown Youth Soccer Club,Lehigh Valley United and more.
