September 9, 2019
By Sahr Morris Jnr
Sierra Leone football legend, Mohamed Kallon, together with other big name international and Italian football stars; Andrea Pirlo and Walter Adrian Samuel will all commence the ‘First Class Professional Coach – Uefa Pro’ Master course at the Coverciano, Italy.
The course, which is the highest level of coaching course dedicated to the training of soccer technicians is expected to commence at the end of September and will end in June 2020.
According to the Italian football governing body, FIGC, the Master course in the various months will see the students attend training courses at some companies, to discuss with technicians and directly understand from them the adopted methodologies.
And after the summer break, at the end of the lessons- which will be both theoretical, in the classroom, and in practice, in the field – the students will have to take their final exams to obtain the maximum Uefa license for coaches.
“Two world champions of 2006, such as Andrea Pirlo and Luca Toni, will be among the master coaches’ students, with the aim of passing the final exams at the end of the lessons and thus obtaining the Uefa Pro qualification, which will allow them to be able to drive any team, including those participating in the professional Serie A and Serie B men’s championships. Not only Toni and Pirlo: among the students there is also the coach of the Under 17 women’s national team, Nazzarena Grilli, and former players who have marked a piece of Italian and international football history such as Cristian Chivu, Paolo Montero, Thiago Motta and Walter Samuel,” a statement reads from the FIGC website .
If successful, Kallon and others would be able to coach any team in the Italian Serie A and Serie B as well as outside the Italian league.
Below is the complete list of students admitted to follow the Master: Mohamed Kallon, Sergio Arnosti, Francesco Baldini, Emiliano Francesco Bigica, Paolo Bianco, Daniele Bonera, Fabio Caserta, Marco Cassetti, Cristian Eugen Chivu, Mirko Conte, Paolo Montero, Thiago Motta, Angelo Palombo, Andrea Pirlo, Matteo Contini, Gaetano Fontana, Nazzarena Grilli, Ivan Javorcic, Vincenzo Italiano, Stefano Lucchini, Alessandro Lupi, Walter Adrian Samuel, Manuela Tesse, Luca Toni and Emanuele Troise.
In May 2015, Kallon successfully completed his UEFA B License coaching course in Italy on a high note, finishing fourth out of the 45 participants. Already, he has CAF B License certificate, a course which he undertook in Freetown.