Francisco Fardilha, Elite Speaker in our School, completed a PhD in Sport Studies at the University of Stirling (UK), on the topic of creative development in professional football academies. Founder of “Special Interest Coaching Research Group”, Higher Education Academy member, British Association of Sport and Exercise Scientists member, Portuguese society of Sports Psychology member, Teaching Impact Award winner (2019). Former Assistant Academy Manager at LOSC Lille and Technical Director at FC Girondins de Bordeaux Women, he is currently Women´s Technical Director of FC Bayern Munich, in Germany.

TP: If it is possible, what are the first concerns that are fundamental to develop creativity in Football?

Francisco Fardilha: First, I think academics should listen more to coaches and to people that are on the field. Because if there are 100 definitions of creativity and we want to improve creativity, for example, in youth academies, it’s important to understand what the values and beliefs of the people working in the academies are. It may sound too bureaucratic or theoretical, but that definition is maybe on of the most important bits if you want them to help players become more creative.

To know what they think creativity is and what is its origin. If they think it’s something God-given like a gift, that cannot be changed; if they think it’s something that can be taught, if they think that it’s something that can be developed, that’s fundamental. People’s beliefs are fundamental for the development of creativity.

TP: Did you focus your research in football academies?

I specialized in youth development, so I’m really interested in creativity in professional academies, not so much in terms of grassroots participation sport. Because professional academies are very particular environments. During my PhD I visited 12 academies in three countries – UK, Portugal, and Italy. Then I spent a longer time embedded in the academy of one of the top Portuguese clubs. For my first study, I focused on definitions and conceptualisations of creativity. So, I went to these academies in different countries and cultures picking the brains of their Heads of Coaching and Recruitment on what is creativity? How do you develop that? And then this Portuguese top club was really keen on bringing the topic to a different level of depth so they invited me to spend more time with them, roaming around freely. I was there every day observing everything from training of under-13 teams to whatever I wanted. Sitting on the cafeteria and observing the interactions between players, staff, etc., going to the matches and seeing parental behaviours too, I also went to an international tournament with them. This experience gave me a broad understanding of the elements that may promote or limit creative development on a professional academy on a daily basis.

TP: Generally, people say, not only in football, that creativity is fundamental. Did they really create the conditions do develop or stimulate creativity in their environments?

Francisco Fardilha: The discussions and debates on creativity tend to focus a lot on what happens on the pitch, and on the individual. How can we make a player more creative? What kind of drills, what kind of training exercises can we develop for a player to become more creative? Even though creativity and talent, let’s say, are properties of the athlete-task-environment interaction, one does not occur without the other. One constrains the other. So during my research, it was interesting to find that there was no previous work focused on understanding the impact of organizational culture on creative learning. When I talk about creative learning, I talk about the process of developing creativity. To date, there is no evidence that creativity is something that is born with, nor evidence disproving it. My assumption is that there might be some kind of innate element in terms of creative potential in specific areas, but I still have no evidence that there is or not. I am open to believing that there might be something, but above all there must be stimulation. It’s a little bit like genetic and epigenetic. You are born with a certain propensity for certain things, but if they’re not activated, they might not necessarily become expressed. That is why I think it’s important to focus on the process of creative development instead of only focusing on the pre-existing skills and capacities a certain individual already might have or not. And this is interesting because research in organizational creativity, is usually based a lot on companies, on how companies can become more innovative, more disruptive. CEOs and leaders they all talk about how “creativity is important. We all want to be more creative. Creativity is at the core of our business.” But do they really “walk the walk”, or do they just “talk the talk”? Do they really live up to their words, creating a kind of working environment that promotes creative behaviour at every level of the organization?

TP: What influences the development of creativity in football academies?

Teresa Amabile developed in 2016 the so-called Dynamical Potential Model of Creativity and Innovation. It’s an academic model, but I find it quite useful for football academies, because it’s built on the assumption that the organisation can impact the creativity of the individual. So, the environment of an academy can influence how a player is able or not to express his creative potential, and at the same time, the individual creativity of every single person working in the academy. Be it players, be it coaches, be it the leaders of the academies, the academy head of coaching, the academy directors, the CEO of the club, everyone can impact on the ability of players to express their creativity. This reminds me two of the key concepts of Tactical Periodization® and the philosophy that underpins its application: complexity and fractals. We must understand that if everything is connected, like the players are in the team with the coach’s game idea, it’s really important to think that the way an academy thinks about its structure, the way it thinks its vision and the behaviors that they promote, the day-to-day interactions at all levels of the club and the academy`s organisational structure, these are all really important for the way creative potential can be expressed.

Then, on a different note, there is the Componential Model of creativity that focuses on something very important too: mediators of creativity, i.e. things that are not, let’s say, limited to creativity in itself, but that are necessary for creativity or for creative potential to be expressed. For example, motivation is one of these key mediators of creativity. There’s a distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is when the process motivates you, is when you do something by your own initiative, you have a genuine pleasure. You do it for the pleasure of doing something. The extrinsic motivation is about you being motivated because of the reward. It can be money, prestige, fame, etc. You are a bit more focused on the outcome. You have your eyes on the prize and not really on the process. The Componential Model also talks about skill in the domain. So that idea of the deliberate practice of domain, having the knowledge, knowing the rule to bend the rule. So, this is also something that is going to be transversal. You’re going to see it in every single model of creativity. And this is very interesting, if you think that we’re always seeing or listening to claims such as “we are taking the creativity away from kids. They are born so creative, and we are taking it away from them.” It’s quite interesting to think that we can also think of having the basic skills as something quite important or having the knowledge, an understanding of traditions as something quite important for the development of creativity. Finally, the Model also talks about resources. So having the money or having the human resources, the coaches having the physical resources, the infrastructure of the academy, stuff like that. It’s also important to take these into account when reflecting on creativity. It does not mean that there is some kind of correlation between having more resources and being more creative. In some cases not having so much can boost creative development. But it is an area to reflect on when discussing the topic.

Don’t miss Franciso Fardilha answer in our next week’s article.

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KEYWORDS: TACTICAL PERIODIZATION; TRAINING; FOOTBALL; SOCCER; CREATIVITY; PLAYER DEVELOPMENT.