Due to the high-level cooperation agreement between DVSC and Villarreal CF, the Hungarian club’s professionals learn from the Submarine’s knowledge. 

The coaches and playes of the DVSC Football Academy (general director András Herczeg, U19 coach Zsombor Kerekes, video analyst Levente Kiss, as well as five talented players, including Imre Egri, Dénes Szakál, Milán Sánta, Zsolt Varga and Botond Nyikos) spent one week in Spain, during which they could acquire new skills as part of their training plan.

“Over the last year, Villarreal’s coaches have been with us and we have gained information about how they work here through many meetings, not only about technique or tactics, but also about organisation. Our academy is among the best in Hungary, but we can do even better,” confesses András Herczeg, director of the academy.

According to Herczeg, it is a pleasure to work together with the coaches of Villarreal as they are showing a lot of new things, most of them related to the methodology programmes for coaches in Debrecen.

“It is also a pleasure to be here visiting the facilities, training and playing against the youth teams. The coaches also enjoy watching the training sessions, having meetings and leaving with new information from the academy coaches.”

Besides methodology and football concepts, Hungarian coaches learn everything about how a professional academy works from Yellows who are based in Hungary: “One of the best examples, which I think shows one of the most important changes for their club, is to think about how they have to behave with the players and give them feedback, how to lead them. All the teams have grown because the head coach treats everyone equally. That has been a big improvement, but I would also highlight how the other departments treat the players. All players think that this has changed and they trust us”, says Álex Viña, one of the coaches from Villarreal, who accompanies them in this process. Viña explains that they also teach them “how the rest of the departments work in the club to be able to give more effective tools for their young talents.”

Herczeg also highlights the work of the club’s medical services and psychology department, which were also very impressive. One of the players, who had the opportunity to experience this week at the José Manuel Llaneza Training Ground, Dénes Szakál, agrees with his mentor: “They help both players and coaches to improve individually and they focus on that and take care of us”, but he believes that the best part of his stay here “are the training sessions because the sensations and the environment are spectacular.”

The guests from Debrecen were able to attend the match between the Submarine and Rayo Vallecano at the Estadio de la Cerámica. For some of them, it was the first LaLiga match, which they consider to be the best regular competition in the world. “It is obvious that Spanish football is the best in the world and we are very happy to learn from them because the level is very high,” Herczeg underlined.

DVSC is the first foreign club to join the Villarreal family in this kind of cooperation.