As first announced on the Chesterfield FC Community Trust website, Nathan Cantrill has been appointed as the academy’s new futsal co-ordinator.
Nathan brings a wealth of experience to the role, both in football and futsal, including working on individual player development at academy level.
He is relishing the opportunity he has been given, saying: “It’s very exciting. This isn’t being done anywhere else. It’s going to be a full futsal academy to complement the football academy, so it’s combined. The biggest clubs in the world are doing it – why can’t we do it?
“It’s so fast and intense that you get all the outcomes a coach would want in football. You get the mental and physical challenges, together with the psychological and technical challenges.
“The minimum requirement for a professional footballer is that they are technically outstanding now. We aim to develop the most technical players in the area who will hopefully go on to challenge for the first team one day.”
Nathan explains that the plan is to start from the Under-7s to Under-14s before deciding whether to introduce older age groups. “We hope to recruit the technically best footballers in the area,” he said. “There is so much talent in this area and surrounding areas.
“I will speak to the coaches of the football teams and we can work together to develop the players. For example, if a player is struggling to go on the outside, we can work on that in the futsal arena. It’s a lot smaller so we can micro-manage the coaching.”
Academy manager Neil Cluxton said: “Nathan is a vastly experienced futsal coach with loads of contacts in and around this area. He’s been involved in football for a long time.
“I think Nathan’s quality of coaching is only going to enhance what we currently have and I think it’s going to be good for this football club.
“This will give us an extra strand of having a number of futsal teams that can play in all the local leagues.”
