Two Kenyan juniors set to train at Man U academy

Two promising football talents from Kenya will find their way into the fame when they win an opportunity to train at the prestigious Manchester United Soccer Academy by the end of this year.

Airtel Kenya Managing Director Rene Meza today where he presided over the launch of Airtel Rising Star, an ambitious soccer talent search program that will focus on nurturing budding soccer talents from the grass root into the national stage.

Airtel Rising Star is a joint initiative and part of the four year deal between Airtel and Manchester United and will run in the 12 Africa states that will give over 40 boys and girls under 17 players the opportunity to further their skills at the prestigious academy before a team of coaches and scouts drawn from the club. In Kenya, the players will be identified in the forth-coming Kenya Secondary provincial and National final games which kick off next month with the finals to be held between 9th and 13th August this year. Airtel will sponsors the games to a tune of Ksh.30M taking replacing former sponsors Brookside.

The two months program will end in the second week of October with an exclusive soccer clinic officiated by Manchester Soccer School coaching staff to be held in Tanzania. Meze said that the program will act as stage for building youth football program to act as a feeder to the national team.

“Football has the ability to connect and empower communities through the passion it elicit from fans and the ability of players to learn and eke a living from the sport, it is fundamental to build strong soccer talents feeder systems for our league and the national team,” said Meza.

Manchester United relationship Director who is also the Head of sponsorship Services, Nick Humphreys said that the club will do all its best to serve over 42 million fans of the club in Africa by supporting such programs.

 “We support the of this rich pool of young football talent and we will continues to support such initiatives across Africa to serve our fans, Manchester Soccer School Camp will provide top drawer technical course to the young star.”

The launch was attended by former Manchester United player, Andrew Cole who is also part of the team involved in the Man U talent search in Africa.

Cole played for Man U for seven years having joined the England’s most successful club in 1995 from Newcastle united before leaving the club in 2001 for Blackburn Rovers. During his stint at United, he played a long side Terry Sheringham, Erick Kantona and Ole Gunner Solskjaer where he won five premier league, two FA cups, one UEFA champions League and one intercontinental cup with the club.

Cole and his team will leave on Tuesday night for Tanzania where they will oversee the launch of a similar program. 

Elvince Joshua

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