Contributed by Shane Neubronner

Singapore, December 10, 2009 – Former Tottenham Hotspur captain and England international Gary Mabbutt will lead a team of Spurs’ coaches to Singapore for the International Player Development Course, in partnership with the Football Association of Singapore. The course is scheduled to take place from 11-20 December.

The International Player Development Course, open to children between the ages of 6 and 16, will begin on 14 December with three-hour long sessions held in the afternoon from 3-6pm at The Cage.

Spurs have given five places at the International Player Development Course to the FAS, who in turn will select players from the national youth setup to attend.

Tottenham Hotspur, being a London-based Premier League football club, is aware that the inaugural Youth Olympics Games (YOG) will be held in Singapore in August 2010, and that Singapore’s Under-15 football team will be representing Asia in the football competition for the YOG.

In the true spirit of the Olympic Games, with London being the host city for the Summer Olympic Games in 2012, Tottenham Hotspur has offered its assistance to the FAS for the Singapore YOG football team.

Mabbutt, along with his team of experienced Premier League coaches will work with the Singapore YOG football team over three special training sessions during the period. The first training session will be led by Gary Mabbutt, and the next two sessions will be helmed by Chris Ramsey, who is Assistant Head of Player Development at the Tottenham Hotspur Football Academy.

To facilitate a sharing of best practices, experience, capacity building and transfer of knowledge, FAS and various schools coaches have been invited to attend the sessions. This deep level of engagement and commitment between the Tottenham Hotspur coaches and the FAS is unprecedented, and marks the beginning of a longer term partnership between the two entities.

Additionally, Mabbutt will also speak at a forum for 30 select FAS coaches on motivational methods and man management.

Secretary General of FAS Winston Lee said: “Spurs are a club steeped in tradition. They have a footballing philosophy in developing youth players which is in sync with our latest youth football development programme which is based on the best practices of the leading football nations in the world. The YOG players and the NFA coaches are looking forward to the sessions with the Spurs’ coaches and we hope to establish a long term relationship with them.”

There will also be a free one day session for 20 underprivileged youth from the Muhammadiyah Children’s Home and two sessions for amateur adults or weekend warriors.

About Gary Mabbutt, MBE
A model professional in the modern era, Gary Mabbutt played over 600 games for Spurs in 16 years before retiring at the end of the 1997-98 season. Numbers alone don’t tell the whole story though. Mabbutt battled throughout his career against the effects of diabetes and managed to overcome a serious facial injury in 1994 and a broken leg that ruled him out of the 1996-97 season.

Signed for £105,000 from Bristol Rovers in August 1982, Mabbutt soon tasted glory in the 1984 UEFA Cup triumph before forming one of the best central defensive partnerships seen at White Heart Lane with Richard Gough in the 1986-87 season, which saw the club finish third in the league, reach the semi-finals of the League Cup and, narrowly lost out to Coventry City in the 1987 FA Cup Final.

Awarded the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) and winner of 16 full England caps, Mabbutt’s proudest moment came when he lifted The FA Cup at Wembley in 1991.