Although Thailand are not in this year’s World Cup, there is a strong effort within the country to make sure that they soon will be. The help that Thailand receives comes from an unlikely source: A former German professional footballer. Franz Schwarzwalder has been coaching Thailand’s young prospects for 8 years, and believes that they could soon be a footballer force to fear; such is the level of their youth coaching.

Schwarzwalder believes that “The Thai youth team is better than Germany’s”. However, it appears Thailand is having problems converting this youth talent to senior level. However, Schwarzwalder believes he can help to change this, and he has already had some success. Over the last few years, four players from the team he coaches at the Assumption College have made it to the under-23 team.

Although much still needs to be done, Schwarzwalder and others are moving Thai football in the right direction. Having played in the German 1st and second divisions for 12 years with the likes of Gerd Muller and Franz Beckenbauer, he is helping to bring expertise and passion to Thai football.

As well as being the head football coach at the Assumption College, he is also a German teacher there. He has taught the Thai under-16 side, as well as coaching in the Franz Beckenbauer Football Academy in Nong Chok.

If Thailand want to compete at the highest level of football, then help from passionate and experienced players and coaches like Schwarzwalder is invaluable. And who knows, perhaps in years to come Thailand will taste some World Cup glory of their own.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 29th, 2006 at 7:51 am and is filed under About Thailand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.