There's a possibility a coaching shift for youth football in Germany will start from next season. To help the development of more individually talented players, 3-a-side games with small goals may be introduced to give the 5 to 9 year olds more time with the ball, more chances to score and to have more fun. There is some resistance from the people in power and it looks like participation will be voluntary rather than mandatory. It does seem, however, there is discontent with the amount of flair players being bought into German football from abroad and the lack of those coming through the existing system. Others will know better than me - wasn't there a similar argument here some years back? Did youth coaching in England undergo a major change? https://www.dw.com/en/the-future-of-youth-football-in-germany/a-49231568
I can't speak for football but as a rugby coach the failure of the 2011 World Cup led to a major shift in the development of children from 2012. Despite the worse performance in the 2015 World Cup the fruits of the plan were starting to show in the last couple of years. England should have won the 2019 World Cup but a brain fart performance in the final meant we lost. From my point of view I remember there was some resistance with the RFU to begin with but looking back it's clear they were right, one of the changes brought in, which I think football in England would benefit from is that it is against the rules for matches up to U12s for clubs to record results. Results do not matter, development matters particularly as some children flourish in the sport at different ages, county tournaments used to have a group stage followed by a knock out stage for age groups as young as U7s, this too is outlawed in English rugby. The annual country tournament is just that, they play matches in a group and then go home with medals and certificates and largely everyone is happy. Football needs to concentrate on development, with or without the ball, but one thing children (and coaches) can do without is the pressure to get results.
ISTR that the German FA has form for this. They declared a "Year Zero" for youth training after Euro 2000 and disbanded that and restarted it again after Euro 2004. TBF the RFU's change in approach was much earlier with the introduction of the "Continuum" and development of game structures (mini and midi) that focussed on skills development, enjoyment and the concept of working as a team culminating in fun 'festivals' which I really thought were really good ideas. But ISTR that there was a catastrophic drop-off in participation numbers at the step-up to U13s. The 'U13 drop-off' (the step-up to "proper" full sized games) is something I've also seen in hockey and their age group banding is done in years slots: ie U8, U10, U12, U14...
The training may be more formalized but it is just mimicking street football. The fun and enjoyment of that. Playing in confined spaces and learning to control the ball by knocking it off the kerb or wall. Small sided football is common but not formalized in South America. And unlike the manicured pitches in Europe kids are allowed to play on the worst of surfaces. Helps to build ball control. Uruguay suffered greatly when Montevideo was redeveloped. All the street football of kids from one block playing another block disappeared and with it the success of a national side that for it's population size is an extreme outlier. The loss of street football was replaced by mimicking the conditions in very small sided football training and a plan which sees clubs from all over the country release their best youngsters at all ages to national camps.
Fairy 'nuff but when to kids move up to bigger pitches in hockey & rugby they really don't know what to do with all that 'space'...
Sounds like a version of futsal. Many many technically great players attribute their development down to futsal including Messi, Ronaldo, Pele, xavi, iniesta, ronaldinho etc Started becoming more common over here as well now.
