Between the three of them, Marco Carducci, Elijah Adekugbe and Carlos Patino have worked with hundreds of soccer coaches and trainers during their career.
They all ended up playing with Cavalry FC and made their marks during the Calgary team’s hugely impressive first season in the Canadian Premier League last year. Their skill sets, though, are the product of thousands of hours training across Canada and around the world.
Now, the three have come together to launch CONTRLL (www.contrll.com), an online resource for soccer players of all levels that’s packed with training programs, soccer drills and more.
“We’re all around the same age but have been so many places and have played in different countries and worked with different coaches, so it’s a combination of all those experiences and everything we’ve learned,” said Carducci, who earned the CPL’s Golden Glove award for being the top goaltender in the league last season. “It’s a way for us to be able to reach more soccer players and a lot of us do a lot of coaching on the side, but there’s obviously limits to that with our professional schedules.”
The recently launched CONTRLL features a range of programs. There’s a library of more than 100 drills, training programs for everyone from aspiring pros to recreational players looking to improve, and more intensive options that involve more personalized training and communication with the three Cavalry players.
That was important to Carducci, Adekugbe and Patino.
“We wanted to create a product with CONTRLL that could really be for everybody,” Carducci said. “If it’s having access to the library and content we put out, that can be a great resource whether you want to be a pro one day or want to get a college scholarship or just love the game and want to improve your skills.
“That’s what we wanted this to be. We wanted this to be accessible for everybody and also have something where, with the mentorship program, we can give more of our experience or more of our time. It is for everybody, but if someone is more driven and aspires to reach a higher level, we want to be able to help with that.”
Carducci, Adekugbe and Patino had been working on launching CONTRLL since long before the COVID-19 pandemic forced most people into self-isolation, but there’s no question that it’s an extremely useful resource for anyone looking to continue their training while they’re restricted to their homes.
“Basically, all you can do right now is what you can do at home or in your backyard because we’ve got to respect the decisions that have been made with everything that’s going on (with COVID-19),” Carducci said. “It’s a great program to have and … this is a time where we hope a lot of people can take advantage of it.”
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2020
