A 20-year-old footballer whose own sporting ambitions were disrupted by a serious heart infection is now creating new opportunities for hundreds of young players across Christchurch.

Ilan Mastrocola-Simon founded IMS Performance Football after playing and coaching with professional and semi-professional clubs across four continents.

Before the age of 19, Mastrocola-Simon had already experienced football environments around the world and was focused on pursuing his own playing career.

However, that path changed unexpectedly when he developed a heart infection.

Rather than walking away from the sport, Mastrocola-Simon shifted his attention towards helping Canterbury’s next generation of footballers develop the skills, confidence and opportunities needed to progress.

“I saw the incredible talent in Christchurch but felt there wasn’t a clear pathway for young players to reach their full potential,” he said.

That belief led him to establish IMS Performance Football, an individual-focused development programme designed to complement, rather than replace, the training players receive from their clubs.

Less than six months after launching, the organisation is working with more than 300 families each week, while more than 60 young footballers are enrolled in its academy.

The programme offers individual coaching, small group sessions, school-based programmes, holiday camps and academy training.

Its coaching model places a strong emphasis on each player’s individual development, including technical ability, decision-making, confidence, resilience and understanding of the game.

Mastrocola-Simon works with players to create individual development plans based on their position, goals and potential pathway within football. The organisation said its training was designed to prepare players for academy, National League and professional environments.

Small training groups are used to maximise each player’s time with the ball, while sessions are intended to recreate the intensity and decision-making demands of competitive matches.

Mastrocola-Simon said team training in New Zealand often understandably focused on tactics and preparing for matches, but he believed some young players needed more opportunities to concentrate on their individual game.

“IMS Performance Football was created to solve a problem I experienced first-hand,” he said.

“There is a clear gap in individual player development, and that gap is often what separates players who progress from those who don’t.”

The organisation’s programmes are now reaching children at several Christchurch schools, including Queenspark School, Knights Stream School, St Albans School, Westburn School, Beckenham Te Kura o Pūroto and Cobham Intermediate.

IMS usually offers a Mini Kicks for children aged three to seven, providing an introduction to football through games and activities focused on coordination, balance, ball control and teamwork, but their current focus is on an older age group.

“(We) will be taking our Under 12s, who I think have the most potential in the Canterbury region right now, to an international tournament in Osaka, Japan,” he said.

Its recent holiday camps have been delivered alongside Canterbury clubs including Parklands United and Mid Canterbury United, with programmes open to children from different clubs and of varying abilities.

Mastrocola-Simon’s international experiences have shaped an approach centred on helping young players identify what makes them different.

During time spent in the Vancouver Whitecaps environment in 2023, he was encouraged to find and develop his “X-factor”, an idea he has carried into his own coaching.

He said progressing in football required more than understanding tactics.

Players also needed to be individually dangerous, confident, adaptable and capable of performing under pressure.

The rapid growth of IMS Performance Football suggests there is considerable demand among Christchurch families for additional development opportunities outside traditional club training.

What began as an unexpected redirection of Mastrocola-Simon’s own ambitions has become a pathway for hundreds of young players.

His career may not have followed the route he originally imagined, but the setback has given him a new purpose: helping Canterbury footballers discover how far their own talent could take them.