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 Simon Clifford has been featured in a new book by the New York Times bestselling author Daniel Coyle which looks into the nurturing of talent in a number of different fields.
Coyle, who penned the award winning Lance Armstrong's War among others and is one of the most respected authors in America, details Clifford's work in The Talent Code alongside other case studies including Tiger Woods and Frank Sinatra, looking at how talent can be unearthed regardless of prosperity.
The New York-based author spent two years looking at the most successful figures across a wide range of disciplines, predominantly in sport, highlighting the similarities in the way that each harbours leading talent. Coyle's focus on Clifford's BSS and SOCATOTS organisation - the largest of its kind - looks at how footballers graduate from the programme with a far greater level of technical proficiency than their counterparts.
Among those to benefit from the BSS programme, which uses the Brazilian game of Futebol de Salao to develop attributes including close-ball control and passing, are Micah Richards, Michael Owen, Theo Walcott, Wayne Rooney and John Bostock.
That list is expected to grow dramatically as the first line of graduates to progress through BSS' sister programme, SOCATOTS, a directed play activity for children from six months to five years.
There are now over two million children training regularly within BSS and SOCATOTS, with operations now in place in nations such as Australia, America, Nigeria, South Africa, Singapore, Honk Kong, Canada and Finland.
This is not the first time that Clifford, BSS and SOCATOTS have been featured in a book. Gianluca Vialli's The Italian Job hailed Clifford's approach, while others such as Sir Clive Woodward's Winning cite his methods as crucial to the future of the game.
An extract from The Talent Code follows.
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