The Panamanian coach, Spanish-Danish Thomas Christiansen, said Monday he sees a “promising future” for Panamanian soccer and highlighted the importance of “more investment” in infrastructure and in the training of coaches in all level.
At a press conference regarding his renewal on the bench until the 2026 World Cup, Christiansen and the president of the Panamanian Football Federation (Fepafut), Manuel Arias, spoke about the fact that plans until that year include recognition of the Liga de Nations and the Gold Cup and include base players in those tournaments but also projects for the World Cup.
“We have a promising future,” said Christiansen, who appreciated Panama’s role in the last part of the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers as positive, although it didn’t qualified, before which he asserted that “we must look to the future.”
Boasts the qualifying stage for the 2022 World Cup
Panama may have been “proud of the qualifiers” in the past, because “21 points were scored octagonal. But Costa Rica made a fantastic finish, before that we just had to congratulate them and now more because they qualified that is for the World Cup. We need to look to the future, “he said.
The coach stressed that in the short term there will be the League of Nations, on which Panama is dependent on itself and on which it should at least get into the final, as well as some friendships scheduled for next September and November.
Player and coach training
“The most important thing in these four years” left for the 2026 World Cup “is the training”, not only of the players but of the coaches, “the training in different provinces”.
Next July, Christiansen will begin touring various provinces of the country “to make coaches more technical.”
“The biggest goal I have is to support soccer in Panama,” said Christiansen, who highlighted the need to “invest more” in infrastructure, so that they don’t have to “share a training camp with 4 teams with bad, difficult schedules. ” .
The Federation considers it necessary to make investments
The president of Fepafut agreed with Christiansen on the need for additional investment in not only national infrastructure but also in clubs, in the preparation of players and coaches and also in tournaments.
“Progress in all categories” is being pursued, said Arias, who announced that in July 2023 “the first two fields” of a long-awaited High Performance Center are expected to be ready.
A High Performance Center in action
The process of building the Center has “already begun”, it was built using “funds coming from FIFA and requiring deadlines. The process is more advanced than it seems,” Arias assures.
Happy with Christiansen
Regarding the coach’s renewal, Arias praised Christiansen’s work since he arrived in 2020 because “he brought a lot of good things, showed his quality as a person in his walk and he was able to convey the same message to the players. “
“We have felt satisfied” with Christiansen’s performance, “I think there was a generational renewal, I think he was able to see the DNA of the Panamanian player and that the game could take advantage of it,” Arias concluded.
Source: La Verdad
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