Yorkregion.com - Sports - Unionville’s Medeiros pursues soccer’s top technical achievement
Unionville’s Medeiros pursues soccer’s top technical achievement
Sports
May 15, 2008 07:27 PM
‘I want to develop the youth of tomorrow in my country, Canada.’
By: Mike Hayakawa
Sam Medeiros is on a mission.
The 40-year-old Unionville resident’s goal is to produce the best soccer players in Canada and put the country on the world soccer stage.
To do that, Medeiros had a tough decision to make and informed the Unionville-Milliken Soccer Club he is resigning after three years as technical director.
With that done, Medeiros is hitting the books and alternating between his Unionville residence and Belfast, Ireland to complete his United European Football Association technical A licence.
“It was a tough decision to leave the club as I still needed to do a lot of work to take it to where I feel it can go,” he said.
“But I decided to apply for the licence to empower myself with the highest knowledge of the game so I may help educate those I work with to the best of my ability.”
The Portugese native, who moved to Canada at age nine, earned his Canadian A Licence, which is the highest level a technical director can attain here.
He applied for the European licence two years ago before recently getting the green light to pursue it.
Earning that licence means a two-year commitment to developing players and teams under specific guidelines.
He must also keep a log book of his work and visit the association’s Belfast office twice to report on his progress, he said.
Now running youth programs in Toronto and coaching a semi-professional team in Vaughan, Medeiros has big plans for how to use his European licence.
“I want to develop the youth of tomorrow in my country, Canada,” he said.
“My goal is to help the organization I will be working with to reach the cutting edge of development and make it the authority of football.”
Medeiros’ absence leaves a huge void in the Unionville-Milliken club, president Richard Herold said.
But over the long run, he thinks Medeiros’ move is better for the game.
“What Sam is pursuing is a very lofty achievement,” he said.
“It’s good for the development of the sport in York Region, Ontario and even Canada.”