The Tony Football Excellence programme, an Israeli sports project, will open operations in Rwanda soon to boost football development among young talented footballers, the Ministry of Sports has announced.

The programme, which is a project by renowned Israeli sports investor Yonat Miriam Listenberg was approved by the cabinet in June this year.

The Ministry is now in contact with the investor to agree on when exactly the programme will begin operations in Rwanda.

Sports Minister Aurore Mimosa Munyangaju is confident that the programme could be one of the durable solutions to the development challenges that Rwandan football has been facing over the years.

Muyangaju hopes that the Tony Football Excellence programme is going to bring opportunities to young footballers nationwide to excel in the sport and grow their talents that can contribute to the national team in different age categories.

"Now that the programme was approved by the cabinet, we are looking at how soon it comes to the country because we expect that it contributes to the detection, development and gives a platform to talented youngsters to become future football stars,” she told journalists during a press conference on Tuesday.

The Minister didn’t provide details about the programme but she said young players will get a chance to grow their talent through the programme.

The programme will start in five districts, which are not confirmed yet, and will be extended to other districts countrywide based on how productive and successful it will be.

Through the project, at least one football pitch will be established at the identified districts and a football school of excellence will be built in Kigali to host the most performing young players selected from identified districts.

The Tony football excellence programme follows revised Isonga Programme launched in June last year with a target to grow the development of talented youth starting from schools.

The Isonga Project was initially launched by the government of Rwanda in 2009 as a talent pool approach through which the Ministry of Sports selected the most talented young male footballers to prepare them into future players for the national teams.

 The government revised the project in 2019, with a target to unearth, develop and promote young males and females, from schools towards producing future stars in different sporting disciplines namely Football, Volleyball, Basketball, Handball, Cycling and Athletics.

The French Development Agency (AFD) committed Euros 1.5 million (over Rwf 1.5 billion) to implement the project.