“The ground was absolutely buzzing for many different reasons” she said.

“Some had come to see boy band JLS, and Tinchy Stryder and Amelia Lily. Others were there to see their idols once again, the likes of  Zinedine Zidane, Lee Sharpe, Dwight Yorke, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Denis Irwin and Jaap Stam to name but a few. For me, it was all about Edwin van der sar.”

“I have sat for years in the Stretford End marvelling at some of his brilliant saves, and he absolutely delivered for me! He was as sharp as the day he left us and I left the ground on a high”

She continued “But everyone was also there to support the fantastic work that the Manchester United Foundation does of which it deserves to be proud”

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2334719/Sir-Alex-Ferguson-Paul-Scholes-Zinedine-Zidane-Manchester-United-v-Real-Madrid-legends-match.html#ixzz2V93AsdAu

The following is by BY STEVEN BEACOM from The Telegraph – 10 MAY 2013

Some people argue that Sir Alex Ferguson wasn’t just a manager. He was THE manager who had the respect of just about all of his peers and every player who put on a pair of boots.

Through the years his mere presence on the touchline and those mind games gave United a goal start against many sides even before kick-off!

And you wonder why they kept on winning. Doing it all the while in that free flowing, all or nothing glorious fight to the finish style demanded by Ferguson, whose footballing principles are worthy of admiration.

He changed the landscape of the game in England, ending the dominance of Liverpool before seeing off challenges from Leeds, Blackburn, Arsenal, Chelsea and this season Manchester City.

He transformed United making them into one of the mightiest institutions on the planet today.

And he turned players like Peter Schmeichel, Roy Keane, Eric Cantona, Cristiano Ronaldo and Paul Scholes (his top five in my book) into world class performers.

Like him or not, you are going to miss him.

It is true you know, we will never see his like again.

Ferguson has been in charge at Old Trafford for 27 years. These days most bosses don’t last 27 months!

And if Moyes doesn’t win a trophy in that time, he’ll be one of them.

Having arrived from Scotland, where with Aberdeen he obliterated the challenge of the Old Firm, Sir Alex‘s first match in charge of United was at the now demolished Manor Ground in Oxford on November 8, 1986. His last game will be at the Hawthorns against West Brom on May 19, 2013.

In between he has inspired United to 13 Premier League titles, two Champions Leagues, one World Club Championship, five FA Cups, four League Cups and countless other pieces of silverware. In total in club management he has won an extraordinary 49 trophies.

His only regret I feel will be that he should have triumphed in Europe’s biggest competition more than twice. Liverpool fans were never slow to remind him on his trips to Anfield that the legendary Bob Paisley won it THREE times.

Those who have got to know Ferguson down the decades will tell you he is a great man as well as a great manager, never shy in helping charities or those down on their luck.

Certainly he was always good to Northern Ireland, making regular visits, though his handling of the media did leave a lot to be desired at times.

Here’s hoping this sporting giant has many more to come.

Happy retirement Sir Alex… and on behalf of all those Liverpool, City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs fans out there, don’t even think about coming back!

I would just like to say that my experience at BCSSA was one of the most fantastic things that I have done in my footballing career. The staff, food, and especially the football and dorms were all excellent and being invited back to compete in the World Skills Final is an experience that I would never endure without BCSSA. Thanks (Spencer, Canada, 14 years old)

I had a great time. I learned a lot about soccer and made a lot of new friends. I highly recommend this camp and want to return next year. Thanks. (Emily, USA, 14 years old)

It was a fantastic experience, I did the goalkeeping course and it was very helpful to improve my game. I recommend a minimum of a two week course because your body takes time to cope with the program, and you will feel the improvement after at least 6 days. (Andrew, Indonesia, 18 years old)

Adam had a fantastic time. We will be looking forward going with you again next summer, specially the goalkeeping course. (Adam, Poland, 15 years old)

My son Jackson had a wonderful experience as an 8 year coming over the the States. The instruction, facilities, and program was excellent. He talks about coming back. (Jackson, USA, 8 years old)

I had the greatest two weeks of my life in the camp. I met a lot of new people who were very friendly I had amazing coaches like Coach Simon through whom I learnt a lot and I learned discipline and respect people with other cultures . It was a fantastic experience. and I am looking forward to go again. (Moataz, United Arab Emirates, 15 years old)

The training was absolutely excellent. I had a lot of fun meeting people from so many different places. (Alex, USA, 16 years old)

It seems a long way in the distance – Summer 2013 – especially as the nights get darker and we head into Winter.

However, it is never too early to book your visit to us. This year we are running for just 5 weeks and when the places are gone     ……. they are gone!

We look forward to meeting all the new players, and of course, as always to welcoming back those of you who visit Bobbies year after year.

Our coaches are committed to ensuring that you have the time of your life, so contact Leigh now at leigh@bcssa.co.uk and make your dream a reality.

Our coaches stayed with Mel, Andrew and James who, as coaches, visited BCSSA with their U17′s team in 2007, for a pre-season camp.

Whilst in Edmonton our three coaches delivered sessions at various venues in the Edmonton area to both boy’s and girl’s ranging from 9 to 16 years of age. By the end of our trip, we delivered to over 250 players.  We also held some coaching clinics to help parents/coaches deliver their sessions in the correct manner and with the correct age appropriate content.

On one of their rare days off, their host Mel drove our three coaches to Jasper in the Rocky Mountains for an amazing day which included a cable car ride to the top of a mountain, spectacular waterfalls, amazing wildlife and finally a relaxing dip in the natural hot springs to round off a great experience.  Well worth the 5:30am start and eight hour round trp.  Our friends at EMSA were also kind enough to take us out to dinner, for which we thank them.

After all our coaching sessions were done, we held our skills test on the Saturday morning, to which some 40 players attended and put their skills to the test. The to lucky winners will be contacted and invited to join BCSSA in the UK at our International skills final later in the year.

Goalkeeping clinics will begin again in October at our Parrswood Campus in Didsbury.

The goalkeeper is without doubt one of the most important players on the field – they are the last line of defence and the first line of attack. To play the position well requires special skills and training.

Team managers and coaches have told us that their goalkeepers are generally left to their own devices as this is an area that they do not have a specialist knowledge of. So often Keepers are left to fend for themselves.

A game can be won or lost on one goal!

A small difference.

If you’re ready –

let us be the difference that makes the difference.

At Bobby Charlton’s our qualified FA Goalkeeping coach Ciarán takes the sessions which take place every Saturday and Sunday from 12-1.30pm  Follow Ciaran on Twitter @coachciaran or on our blog above.

It is a pleasure to see the keeper’s in the North West improving week by week.

As always at Bobby Charlton’s we aim to exceed expectations and we measure ourselves always by your success.

Will your team keeper be one of them? Will you be one of them?

Thank you to Mark, one of our parents who sent the following email

Geraldine

Firstly, and most importantly, I would like to say from the first moment that Sam joined the group Ciaran and Mo made him immediately feel very welcome and part of the group.

Ciaran assessed Sam’s abilities and gave him training that suited his needs and skills. The sessions are brilliant. Fun, varied, well-structured and there is method in everything done. For example, the warm ups link to the work in that week and link to work in following weeks. Both Ciaran and Mo have a great attitude and personality with the kids and they relate well with them.

We have been to other goalkeeping schools and this is easily the best. The class sizes are limited, this allows work to be dedicated and the children get the focus of the coaches. We receive a weekly update of things to remember and of things the children can look to improve on.

So, do you want to train like the professionals? – this course gives goalkeepers the opportunity to receive specialist goalkeeping coaching in all aspects of the position; handling, footwork, diving, shot stopping, recovery saves, reflex saves, one v one, dealing with crosses, dealing with the back pass and distribution

Topics covered on the program include:

Goalkeeping Specific Warm ups: Ball Coordination, Exercises
Dynamic Stretching and footwork.

Basic Handling. The Starting Position,
Balance and Footwork,
Moving Into and Down the Line,
Shot Stopping

Diving Saves: Collapsing Saves,
Step and Dive Saves,
1 v 1
Reaction Saves,
Recovery saves

Dealing with Crossed Balls: Positioning for Crosses, 
Assessing the Flight and Attacking the Ball, 
Jumping and Catching Technique,
Punching the Ball,
Dealing with low Crosses

Distribution: Dealing with the Back Pass,
Throwing the Ball,
Kicking the Ball

Small Sided Games: Goalkeepers 2 v 2,
Goalie wars

Plus: Sweeper Keeper
Communication,
Organisation at Set Plays,
Shooting Practices,
Crossing Practices,
Penalty Saving

Sessions cost £10 for the hour and a half clinic.

Sessions block booked are £70 for ten or £40 for five.

Send us an email to register and ensure your place as places are limited.

We look forward to meeting you and you’ll be surprised to see how quickly you get to know all the other keepers.

One of my New year’s resolutions is to update this lovely website more often. You are all nagging me to put so many photos on that maybe I will allocate time each week to doing just that. We have had an amazing rush of bookings which gets us all excited about the coming year. We so look forward to seeing you all again and to meeting some of you for the first time!

We wish coaches Stu and Paraic and relaxing and event free journey as they head back to coach in Japan after their Christmas break. Also safe journey to Rumi Adachi who visited England with Stu from the  ACC in Japan. It was great to see you and at least Manchester United performed for you on your visit to Old Trafford with us on Boxing Day. Say Hi to all our friends in japan.   

Jordan Booth with Rene Meulensteen

What a fantastic Day we had. We welcomed all our fantastic skills finalists back to Manchester, all eager and maybe just a touch nervous about competing!

In true Bobby Charlton style the weather was great.

The coaches set up at 6.30am in the dark preparing to see who would be the Champions Champion.

After the welcome meeting we headed down to the pitch to begin the Skills Tests.

It’s a strange notion that you can never really know how anyone will perform at their, once in a lifetime chance, to be the International Skills Winner. There were players who surprised themselves and achieved their personal bests, and some who in their own words “messed up” At the end of the day, you can only do what you can do.

After lunch, competition over, came the greatest opportunity – to be coached by Rene Meulensteen, the Manchester United First team Coach.

Rene, met all the players and first things first, had his photo taken with them.

The feed back we have had from the day, as always, makes us know what an experience this was!!

Thanks to all the families who flew their children from all corners of the globe to be with us. All the photos will be on our Facebook page very soon for you to tag and keep.

A big, big congratulations to our International Skills Winner for 2011 Jordan Boon (from Manchester) and to our Internationl Skills Runner Up Ilya Vasiliev (from Russia)