A coach from AC Milan has been training members of the soccer team at Nagoya International Junior and Senior High School since April. Although the soccer club, which is part of the top Italian league Serie A, offers lessons to children in Japan and in 12 other countries, it is the first time for the club to provide coaching to a school soccer team.
The school hopes that inviting professional coaches from outside will help improve team members' skills and also reduce the burden on teachers who had been tasked with supervising and coaching extracurricular clubs.
"Bravo!" said Matteo Cont, a 38-year-old Italian coach from AC Milan, to players passing the ball at a soccer field in Nisshin, Aichi Prefecture. Cont and three Japanese trainers who studied coaching at AC Milan supervise 35 junior and senior high school team members twice a week.