Tallaght Town celebrates diversity through football

TALLAGHT Town held a celebration for Algerian Independence day last weekend in Carolan Park.

There is a strong Algerian presence within the club, particularly since the arrival of current Director of Football Mohktar Addani.

Addani is a UEFA Pro Licence Coach and has brought several Algerian coaches alongside him into the club.

The club elected to run an Over 35s seven a side tournament which saw several teams take part with Algerian teams, along with other nationalities such as Nigerian, Brazilian and two Irish teams from Tallaght Town competing against one another.

One of the teams from Tallaght Town would emerge victorious in the final defeating Nigeria in a penalty shootout after a 2-2 draw.

Chairman Alan Merriman spoke about the aim for the event.

“The Algerian community gets together every year for Independence Day and we thought it would be a good idea for us to host it this year.

“It’s a good integration day. We have kids from Morocco, Nigeria and more, we have kids from all over.

‘It is something that we are very passionate about. We want to cater towards everyone in the community.

‘All nationalities and different backgrounds as well. We’re very passionate about making sure that we’re inclusive for all communities and backgrounds.

Also present at the event was the current Algerian ambassador to Ireland Asma Khelef.

The event was a family day with barbecued food of both halah and non halal varieties as well as a bouncy castle for children.

Director of Football Mokhtar Addani has been with the club for the last five months and Tallaght Town have already seen improvements to the club’s practices.

Instrumental in organising the youth sides, Addani has developed a five year plan with the club to develop the youth players, bringing in a system where players are evaluated and a report is done on strengths and weaknesses of the players.

Merriman touched on the impact that Addani has had within the club and the current aims of Tallaght Town.

“We do a complete evaluation on each child in the club, just to give them the best opportunity to develop and to be the best footballers they can be.

‘The training programs he’s brought in have been exceptional and the training level has been at a really high standard.”

“My tenure as chairman of the club over the last 10 years has been more about developing infrastructure and getting a top class facility.

‘We have one of the best facilities in South Dublin for football. Now it is about bringing in a highly skilled individual to manage the coaching side of it and try to develop our coaches as well.”

“I think that was something we were lacking in and we didn’t put too much emphasis on because all our resources were going into the facilities.

‘Now that we have them developed, we are going to concentrate more on the development of our coaches. Mokhtar has been unbelievable since he’s come in really, he’s brought it to a different level.”