YOUNG Stars Soccer Academy will start 2014 with a two-day soccer camp at Crescent Sports Club, Bulawayo, which will run from January 9. RONALD MOYO SPORTS REPORTER
Technical director of the academy, former Railstars, Shabanie Mine and Highlanders star, Collen Nyambiya said young stars will learn basic football skills during the camp.
He said the aim of the academy is to develop Zimbabwean football through a junior policy that caters for children as young as five years old.
“We would like to have young stars from all parts of the country, but due to some limitations we are working on those from Bulawayo and places near the city. As an academy, we believe we are the future of the game and in the next five-six years we are looking forward to having a team playing at least in the Division Two league,” Nyambiya said.
As part of their plans of developing junior football, Nyambiya and his colleagues, former Highlanders stars Siza Khoza and Master Masiku would also embark on outreach programmes that target young talented, but underprivileged players from the rural areas.
This year they travelled as far as Victoria Falls and Tsholotsho.
He also added that their main aim as an academy is to produce a number of young players who will play in the Premier Soccer League and make it into the senior national team, but they would still need a lot of financial support to achieve their goal.
“If Wayne Rooney played in the England Premier League at an early age, nothing can stop us from producing such players. We are also looking forward to produce such players who would make it to the national team at an early age so that they would go far as their footballing careers are concerned. The problem we are facing is that we do not have any source of funding which is our biggest challenge in fulfilling our goals,” he said.
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Young Stars Soccer Academy had their last activity two weeks ago when they conducted a two-day soccer camp which ended on December 20 at Crescent Sports Club.
Nyambiya’s interest in developing junior football manifested itself back in 2003 when he started sponsoring a juniors’ tournament at Imbizo district in Bulawayo.
