FIFA/Talent Development project: "We want to give every player a chance" (Arsène Wenger)

"We want each member association to reach their full potential, and the conclusion we have from our study is that, basically, not many are doing that. We want to be part of solving that and giving every player a chance, raising standards of youth development, bring balance and increase global competitiveness. That's our main target," said Arsène Wenger, chief of global football development at FIFA, during the CAF executive committee meeting in Kigali (Rwanda) on 15/05/2021.

The former Arsenal FC (Premier League) manager presented 14 months of work carried out by FIFA's Technical Development team (since January 2020), which resulted in a global report on the state and trends of talent development (document available to download). Published on 12/05/2021, this report analyses detection, training, playing opportunities and the transition from youth to senior football.

"We believe that, to improve, you need better education and you need better competitions. For example, we have 211 countries at FIFA and 133 (63%) of them have never been at the World Cup. That is absolutely massive…