Football Association of Malawi (Fam) has unveiled a Fifa talent coach who will be in charge of Luwinga Inclusive Football Academy in Mzuzu for the next two years.
The coach, Thabo Senong of South Africa, is expected to train young kids at the academy and capacitate other coaches from academies across the country.
Speaking during Senong’s unveiling ceremony in Lilongwe Thursday, Fam President Fleetwood Haiya said he in transforming football across the country. believed the coach would help
“This is a very important step and I believe it is one that we need to take if we are indeed to realise our dream of transforming football in Malawi,” Haiya said.
He commended Fifa for its continued support towards Malawi, citing the role the world football governing body will be playing on Senong’s welfare.
“We asked Fifa to support us on our dream of nurturing our youngsters’ talent. Our prayer has now been answered. We believe that with the Luwinga Academy coach provided by Fifa, nourishing the talent we have will be very easy. This will give a platform to the boy child and the girl child who will be at Luwinga and other academies that are not directly controlled by Fam,” Haiya said.
He said Fam would soon introduce schools of excellence as one way of boosting football development in schools.
“We want to sustain the nourishing of young players all over the country. Starting from next year, we will have one school of excellence in our regions. This will be like a pilot project. We will try it like for a year or two. Once we see that it is making good progress, we will increase the number,” Haiya said.
He further appealed to the corporate world to support youth football development in the country.
“We want to start sending players to other leagues across the world as a tool for the country’s economic development,” Haiya said.
Senong said he would do his best in discharging his duties.
“Fam has shown interest in developing youth football and this has compelled Fifa to support the move. Football is played in an open global space, so we have to benchmark what the other people are doing outside, what is the standard of the under-17 Fifa World Cup for girls and boys, what is the standard of the Caf Afcon Youth Tournament and what is the standard of other tournaments for youths.
“So we benchmark, we try to get knowledge and we try to accelerate our kids because we do not want to be satisfied with the way we are or how talented we are. We are working at youth level, so we need youths’ coaches to support us with talent recommendation, talent scouting and with competitions. We have to create a culture of playing competitions in different towns because without competition, it is very difficult to measure the talent and determine whether it’s on the right track,” he said.
Senong has coached on various platforms including being an assistant for the South Africa National Football Team coach.
During the event, Malawi’s representatives at the Caf African Schools Football Championship Cosafa tournament recently held in Namibia presented to Fam some medals and a dummy cheque from the tournament.
Haiya said the triumph at the tournament showcased the existence of talent in Malawi.
Currently, Luwinga Academy has 27 boys and 15 girls.
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