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ACADEMY OVERVIEW: CLAIREFONTAINE

The "mecca" of French football, it has a high reputation of producing some of the world's most gifted players, including the likes of Frenchmen Nicolas Anelka, Louis Saha, William Gallas and Thierry Henry.

In 1976, French Football Federation president and longtime official Fernand Sastre desired for the creation of a national centre of football. Six years later, the FFF selected Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines as the site of the center. Construction of the centre commenced in 1985 and lasted nearly three years - the centre opened its doors in January of 1988. During the 1998 World Cup, which France hosted, Clairefontaine housed the French national team. That same year, the FFF named the centre in Fernand Sastre's honor. A bust of Sastre was put on the grounds in 2000; also present on the grounds is a statue of the FIFA World Cup.

The best young football players from the Île-de-France region (of which Paris is the capital) come to Clairefontaine for training and development of their technical skills. Most of the players that attend here are often being tracked by established French clubs and go on to have very successful careers. Today, many top local clubs play at the grounds. The academy continues to develop some of France's most promising talents in Jimmy Briand and Mourad Meghni.

Youth development at Clairefontaine incorporates many principles on football with their students, such as;

Making the player’s movements faster and better
Linking movements efficiently and wisely
Using the weaker foot
Weaknesses in the player’s game
Psychological factors (sports personality tests)
Medical factors
Physical tests (beep test)
Technical skills
Skill Training (Juggling the ball, running with the ball, dribbling,
kicking, passing and ball control

Tactical (To help the ball carrier, to get the ball back,
to offer support, to pass the ball and follow the pass, positioning and the movement into space

Clairefontaine is an immense football centre, encompassing 56 hectares of land and boasting 66,000 square meters of turfed grounds. It is located in the valleys of Chevreuse in the heart of the Rambouillet forest. Clairefontaine has several training grounds, a stadium pitch and even an indoor pitch made of artificial turf. The centre also includes a medical building, gym, fitness room, restaurant and cafeteria. There are even three tennis courts on the grounds.

Le Centre Technique National Fernand Sastre (Fernand Sastre National Technical Centre), commonly referred to as Clairefontaine, is the national football centre and is one of the nine élite academies of France; only the best players from the Île-de-France région train there. There are eight other élite youth academies in Metropolitan France (Castelmaurou, Châteauroux, Liévin, Dijon, Marseille, Ploufragan, Vichy and Reims) covering the whole territory.

Located 50 km southwest of Paris at Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines, Clairefontaine is arguably the finest football academy in the world - the French answer to the English FA Youth Academy, Lilleshaw. Former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson once said if England had the equivalent to this they would have already won a major championship.