Tómas Johannessen is on trial at Feyenoord this week. The 15-year-old Icelander is seen as one of the greatest talents in his country.
The midfielder has already played two games in the main squad of ÍF Grótta, which plays at the second level in Iceland. Johannessen also trained with the youth of Malmö FF last winter and has three caps for Iceland U16 behind his name, in which he scored once.
Testing players fits in with the policy that Arne Slot would like to see implemented at Feyenoord. “In the ideal situation, in addition to the regular trajectory where you get your youth to the youth academy as young as possible, it is also possible to bring in a number of boys aged 15, 16 or 17 from other clubs every year. For example, you get the top players from the youth academy of FC Twente, FC Utrecht, PEC and you name them all.”
”Other top clubs do that too”, the trainer continues in conversation with the General Newspaper. “If that works, the youth academy will get a huge boost. I call that side entrants. If you don’t, you end up in the situation that you have to get outside players more often for the first team. That is of course a lot more expensive than taking over top talents from other companies and developing them yourself. In addition, the overall level of the youth academy also goes up immediately, which is of course also good for youth players who are already in the training.”
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