Happy New Year!

First of all, I don't want to miss the chance to wish you all a healthy and successful 2024! An exciting year lies ahead, with a football European Championship in our own country, and we are all full of hope and anticipation for our team! But it is also the year in which extensive and much-anticipated changes to children's football are set to begin!

For all of you as well — the many talents, parents, families, coaches, officials, and advisors — another year awaits in which many conversations will be held, complex decisions made, and forward-looking measures taken.

At the start of this year, I would like to give you an overview of the fields of development and the key social development factors of a football talent.

I am well aware that this information is already familiar to you, but if you literally picture it for yourself, you can gain a perspective that allows you to recognize connections and, where necessary, derive the need for action.

The graphic should be understood as follows:

There are three essential fields of development for a football talent, which interact with and influence one another. So really, the arrows should point in both directions. These fields of development are allowed to grow and flourish within the talent's respective individual social environment.

And the social elements also interact with and influence one another. Here too, one could draw the arrows in both directions and show connections between all the elements. One social environment or another may contain more or fewer significant elements. For example, there may not yet be any collaboration with a player's agent, or there may be no siblings at all.

As a basic principle, however:

There is one limiting element: time! The more time invested in one field of development, the less is available for optimizing the other areas.

If there is a disruption in one field of development, or with a social element, that disruption radiates out across all elements and fields of development!

This is where the Systemic Coach comes into play: acting as a communication catalyst, he ensures that these disruptions are overcome.

The more understanding the coach brings for the individual elements and their interaction, the stronger his function as a catalyst.

Moreover, if this coach is not an integrated part of the depicted system, there is also no risk that a lack of trust will prevent communication or that people will fail to speak with the necessary openness.

My wish for 2024:

Dear talents, should you be confronted with apparent setbacks, take a few steps back and take a look at the overview! Find new courage, and stay with it!

And for what it's worth, I hope that Germany becomes European football champion in 2024!

I look forward to taking up another topic in talent development with you next week under my column "So schaut's aus" ("That's How It Looks"). Until then! Stay healthy, and always a good match!