CCS and Real Brasil Move Toward Three-Month Player Exchange

What began as experimental player placements between Trinidad and Tobago and Brazil could soon become a formal three-month exchange programme. The Cox Coaching School and Real Brasil Academia de Futebol are working to turn their growing relationship into a reciprocal arrangement.

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The exchange programme, I think the idea came behind a couple of trials that we’ve had over the last two years.

CCS programme coordinator Cy Padmore said the idea emerged from trials held over the past two years. Last year, eight players spent two months in Brazil in a high-performance programme that included training, in some cases twice a day, and competitive matches. That experience became the basis for a more structured partnership.

The proposed exchange would send selected Trinidadian players to Brazil for about three months. They would train alongside Real Brasil players and compete in matches before Brazilian players made a similar trip to Trinidad. Padmore said the structure already exists, and that the immediate task is to identify the candidates best suited to the opportunity.

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I think the idea is to get it started as soon as possible.

The latest four-day Brazil visit, excluding travel, also tested the players away from familiar surroundings. They had to adjust to changing weather, routines and cultural conditions. Padmore said the group adapted well despite experiencing both very hot and cold days.

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So I know the framework is there. The structure is already in place.

The players trained in Bragança Paulista with Brazilian youth development coach Maurício Do Prado Lima, gaining exposure to a different coaching method. Their strongest test came in Águas de Lindoia against Brasilis FC, a development academy whose players train daily, sometimes twice a day, while pursuing opportunities in Brazil’s professional football system. CCS took a 2-1 lead before eventually being pegged back.

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I think that was something that was good for them, give them a different perspective being from a different coach, doing some new activities; training as well with some other players.