Partizan youth teams round-up

After the winter break, Partizan youth teams are getting ready for upcoming challenges. One of the youngest youth selections, coached by Ivan Stokic, will attend Abu Dhabi Zayed Cup, 2-12 of March, grouped against Barcelona, Charlton and Al Ain while other tournament`s group consists of Al Wahda, Valencia, PSV and hosts Al Jazira.

“Participation at this tournament is and honour to us and the club as there`ll be some great teams like Barcelona, PSV or Valencia but we can match them. Kids are excited to play against such teams and it makes us even more motivated as we are one of the best youth football schools around. Playing against such teams should be normal for us as we are a big club”, said Ivan Stokic.

U-17 and U-19 coaches Nenad Stojakovic and Djordjije Cetkovic also spoke to the club`s website on their expectations ahead of season`s restart on 4^th of March.

“We are entering competitive cycle next week. Kids are still out of the comfort zone, legs are heavy but we still in period of the preps when we have more demanding and comprehensive training. We are gradually number of training sessions and friendless and entering final stage of mid-season preps”, said U-19 coach Stojakovic.

Partizan U-17`s will kick-off second part of the season away to Graficar.

“We are into fourth week of mid-season break training and the sessions now are of high intensity. Workload is so important at this age group, we don`t want to get injuries. I think boys are doing good and quality job. We worked a lot on physicality and now we gradually reduce training intensity.  Entering fifth week of training and two weeks prior to the first competitive game, we work more on tactics and tactical details. We have to rest them and get the ready for the league.

As for the opening game against Graficar, we expect to win it. Lot of us would say results don`t really matter at this stage and that`s really not our primary objective but you have additional pressure when you play for Partizan and I hope we`ll win points from the start and keep fighting for the youth title”, said U-17 coach Cetkovic.

All Partizan U-17 and U-19 matches can be viewed live on FK Partizan official YouTube channel.