Ask Simon Hewitt what are the most important lessons he teaches any youngster who comes into one of his Manchester City Football Schools coaching clinics wanting to become the next Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero or Kevin De Bruyne and he won’t nominate tactical awareness, correct tackling technique or even ball skills.
He will simply say teaching them to love the game.
Hewitt, head of football operations for the MENA Region at City Football Group (CFG), has worked with literally hundreds of young players, some as young as three years old, since he opened the City Football Schools Abu Dhabi in 2011 – and for everyone who passes through one of his sessions he tries to teach them three basic tenets.
“I think football can sometimes be too serious,” he says, “and people kind of pigeonhole (what makes a player great) – is it technical ability, is it tactical awareness, is it the skills, is it a physical presence that kids have?
“I would always say the first and foremost lesson is to have fun.
“The second one would be to play with freedom and be creative.
“Don’t be scared of making mistakes.
“Life’s all about making mistakes and learning lessons, so I think the more creative children are the better.
“And thirdly just to live a healthy and active lifestyle as well because sport is a natural provider for that platform.”
Modern professional football is a cut-throat world with every club trying to find that winning edge by discovering the next superstar or converting the next generation of fans – but that desperate quest is something Hewitt does not buy into.
“There’s natural competition in any sport,” he adds.
“I think it’s just how you present yourselves as a football club and the way you go about that.
“There’s obviously a lot of football clubs globally but this is about the methodology that we want to present to these children.
“We want them to feel part of the club and we want them to enjoy the journey that we’re all on now moving forward.”
Hewitt knows that Manchester City are living in the shadow of some other legendary clubs in the battle to win young hearts and minds.
“Clubs like Manchester United and Liverpool have had years of success and they obviously have a global fanbase because of that success,” he says.
“I suppose when you look at Manchester City as a team and Melbourne City and New York City – they are quite new really and obviously Sheikh Mansour when he took over the vision was to make them successful.
“With success comes more visibility and with more visibility comes more fans.
“So there’s a need for us to get out in countries globally and give young children the experience with the club and hopefully they can become fans as we continue the journey with the group going forward.”
The advantage that City have over many other clubs is the top-to-bottom approach in both coaching philosophy and personnel.
“Where we are very unique is the team of coaches we actually have in the Middle East are from Manchester City’s Academy,” says Hewitt, who has been based in Abu Dhabi seven years. “So we didn’t just recruit these guys through an interview process.
“These are guys that have worked and breathed the club life for a number of years now.
“We have to make sure that link is fluid and very authentic, because otherwise we could say that it’s Manchester City but it wouldn’t be.
“We have to stand by our guarantee of these programmes being Manchester City related and to do that we have to keep in touch with the club and make sure everybody gets the best possible outcomes.”
Like Pep Guardiola and his superb City first team there is a generosity of spirit running throughout City Football Schools’ interaction with the next generation, summed up by the holistic approach of Hewitt.
“You are just trying to engage with children to drive the passion of football,” he says.
“Obviously we’ve all been blessed with football, we’ve played it all our lives and if we can give the kids a little bit of the excitement and enjoyment then for the rest of their years they will enjoy sport along with us.
“If a kid’s playing sport me personally I’m delighted, whether that’s football or basketball or tennis or golf.
“It doesn’t bother me too much which sport they play because a kid that loves sport will play a variety of sports throughout their lives and if we can play a part of that journey and share our passion of football then fabulous.”
A mantra you can imagine Guardiola himself would be proud to stick to.
