by Swieqi United’s Saviour Darmanin was awarded the ‘Coach of the Round’ award last Thursday for the displays in the opening round of the Assikura Women’s League. The coach provided his thoughts on earning this award, his first impressions in leading a team in the women’s sector and the importance of pushing things forward at grassroots level.
Distilling The Award & Performances
Swieqi United’s Saviour Darmanin was awarded the ‘Coach of the Round’ for the first round of the league on Thursday, which was presented by Malta’s Women’s National Team coach, Manuela Tesse.
Providing his comments about receiving the accolade, Darmanin said, “It’s an honour to receive the award, especially because it is voted by peers who are directly involved within the women’s game. It is an award that is merited not only by me but by all the technical staff and the committee, who have continuously been supportive since I took my new position at the beginning of the season, following years as a goalkeeper’s coach. Finally, it is important also to acknowledge the players who ultimately put into practice the work that we do in training onto the pitch on matchdays. It encourages you to keep working hard toward finishing the league in the best possible way.”
The coach is into his maiden season leading a women’s team and the first phase led to plenty of emotional extremes. This when considering that it brought a bitter blow in losing the match against Hibernians, which was followed by a goalless draw against Mgarr United. These were offset by the high of downing Birkirkara by a late goal. Since then, the team managed to avoid defeat in all league confrontations, thus also beating Hibernians and Mgarr United to complete a victory over every team in the league, while earning two more draws against Birkirkara.
Speaking about the proceedings, Darmanin said, “There’s been a lot of interesting direct confrontations. Last week we got another draw against Birkirkara, which ultimately was a result that favoured Birkirkara who retain a four point lead. They have plenty of depth and dominated the women’s football scene for some years, so it was great to win the opening round fixture and end their unbeaten streak. However, at the same time you must aim toward winning honours and so in this regard that win must be only considered in the scope of a whole season. We must continue to work hard to reduce the gap to them and we have two more opportunities in this final phase.”
On Taking A Leading Role Within The Women’s Sector
The coach was probed about his first impressions since taking the lead coaching role with the team based on these opening months. “It is interesting to work in women’s football, certainly very different to the male footballing sector and you must acknowledge the dedication of these players, who give everything to the game even if it is not at a stage where it is a professional opportunity.”
Darmanin has fielded a number of players from the youth league within the senior team as well and as Technical Director within the women’s sector of Swieqi United, he has a direct role in shaping the future teams.
The coach explained why he is keen on working with even more tender ages within the grassroots sector, despite having a UEFA A Coaching Licence, “I work a lot with the youth sector of the team and this is an area where I want to put more work in. I think that there is great satisfaction when you are working with young players and this is where you build a solid foundation around a philosophy that you ultimately build as a club. Having put in that work at the earlier stages of a player’s journey to build these basic skills makes things a lot easier when they are at a more senior level. It would open the possibility to work on more advanced things at that the senior level.”
The coach did not mince his words on the improvement needed in the quality of player development at grassroots level, “There are players with good potential but unfortunately, there are some basics that are not being developed, which remain missing and you then see mistakes creeping into the senior leagues. So, this is something I want to help improve because it has an impact on the whole women’s game.”
He finished, “Competitive football at the more senior levels is very interesting and gives a certain satisfaction. However, there is also a lot of enjoyment in having worked with a player since they are at a young age and then seeing them flourish with time.”
Nodding to the positive showings at national level, the coach alluded to the importance of developing players to reach new levels. The national team will compete in the more prestigious League B in the UEFA Women’s Nations League, which pits Malta against teams of higher calibre. If the trend can be kept up, then the future generation of players must be prepared to meet teams who are even stronger.
He said, “These women achieved something great which is important to acknowledge. The next round will test them even further and I believe a lot in the players who are playing both in the Assikura Women’s League and those who are playing in foreign leagues. However, in relation to these achievements, it is also important that we, the people working in the local clubs, put effort in nurturing the next generation of players to an even higher level so that they can continue pushing toward a higher trajectory.”
Saviour Darmanin returns to action with his team of Swieqi United on Saturday, as they take on Mgarr United at their home ground, at 14:00.
Lead Image: Michael Azzopardi (Swieqi United FC)
