Football academy revealing young talent

It’s really refreshing finding young players as young as eight years old training with passion and courage.The academy started in 2005 from an idea which was raised by former Rayon Sport assistant and Union Sportif coach Jean Paul Kalisa. “The reason of raising this academy was due to my wish of raising the young generation and opening them to the soccer world for their future benefits,” Kalisa says. He also added that what differentiates his academy from others is the holiday tournament which takes place every year. It’s called Amizero Tournament because young children in all sorts of life are invited for participation. On our visit to the Remera grounds in this year’s holiday tournament, we met there a team of street kids who were participating in the tournament. The ‘Chez Lando’ street kids’ team included two female twin sisters who even earned an award as the first female players to participate in this tournament. The reason why this tournament is arranged during holidays is to keep students in holidays busy till their holidays are completed. I was really impressed when I found a five year old boy by the names of “Dudu” juggling the ball like Ac Milan’s magnificent Brazilian footballer, Ronaldinho Gaucho. He told Sunday Times that he wishes to be like Argentinian Messi in his future football career. Many football academies have been invented and others innovated during the beginning of this year. Some of these big academies include APR, Kiyovu, Kicukiro, Mukura and others. This has been one of the strategies which have been used by strong clubs both in Africa and Europe to groom future stars. Some of these big clubs are Egypt’s El ahly, South Africa’s Asec Mimosas, Supersport, and Mamelodi sundowns. This has also facilitated the rise of stronger national teams mostly in West Africa. Young players exported to big clubs in Europe are sources of income to many nations. The good example is Brazil which raises almost 70% of its annual income from investments of its football professionals around the world. However, for almost a decade the Rwanda national team has been depending on foreign players mostly from the neighbouring Congo. In my opinion the best players around the world were raised from club football academies. It’s really a pity influencing a sport in someone at an age above 18. So far the Rwandan football federation (ferwafa) is doing its best by forming the future team players through the Ferwafa Academy. This project was started last year through the assistance of FIFA to the Rwandan government. The German embassy is also supporting Rwanda by offering training to youth coaches plus a German coach, Michael Wise. Hopefully, the likes of 5 year old ‘Dudu’ will be the shining light in tomorrow’s football. Ends