"I welcome very much the idea of Aspire Fellows Meet Other Sports," said Arsene Wenger at Aspire Academy Global Summit

Prof Di Salvo:  7^th Edition of Aspire Academy Global Summit is a bridge between Football and other Sports

DOHA, Qatar, Dec. 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Speaking at the virtual 7^th Aspire Academy Global Summit 2021 on Thursday under the theme: 'Aspire Fellows Meet Other Sports', former Arsenal FC manager and current Chief of Global Development at FIFA, Arsene Wenger said that the role of a coach or manager is very crucial not just in football but in other sports as well.

Tim Cahill

"First of all I welcome very much the idea of Aspire Fellows Meet Other Sports, for I think that there are many points that are transferable from one sport to the other, and what we all have in common in our jobs is that we influence people's life in a positive way," said the Frenchman

"The manager is an observer who can detect the strong points in a newcomer who may not be aware of his or her qualities. Here, the observation quality is very important for a coach," the Frenchman added.

"It's important for a manager to know the psychological mind of a young player. A good mixture of intelligence and motivation is important to shape their careers," concluded Professor Wenger.

The summit was opened with a speech by Valter Di Salvo, Director of Football Performance & Science at Aspire Academy.

"In terms of knowledge sharing, it's an innovative summit. We wanted to cross-over to other sports and understand their approach to training so that we can learn from them," said Di Salvo, who is also the Executive Director of Aspire in the World Fellows Program and Aspire Academy Global Summit.

The goal of the summit was to delve into the training and coaching methodology in basketball, volleyball and athletics.

"I joined coaching with a different mindset as if I was starting from the scratch," said US women's volleyball team coach Karch Kiraly, who guided USA to their first-ever gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in July-August this year.

Retired American decathlete and two-time Olympic champion, Ashton Eaton, former British Athletics head of endurance Barry Fudge, basketball expert Lorena Torres and former Argentine basketball star Luis Scola were the other speakers, who added a lot of insights from their respective rich careers  during the 3 discussion panels.

Valter Di Salvo