The Football Association of Malawi has reaffirmed its commitment to grassroots football development, emphasizing that the future of Malawian football depends on identifying, nurturing, and supporting young talent from the grassroots level.
Speaking on Saturday afternoon during the official launch of the FIFA Talent ID Festival at Mangochi Stadium, FAM Vice President and Chairperson of the Technical Subcommittee Madalitso Kuyera said investing in young talent is the only step towards shaping Malawi Football as it improve the standard of football in Malawi by producing talented players who can compete at both local and international stage.
Kuyera said the football transformation agenda recognises that there are no shortcuts in football, hence having the talent identification project, which is being funded by FIFA.
“This is a movement thy has started to uncover raw talents. We want every child in the country to be given the opportunity to play the game and realise the dreams of excelling in football.
“We are scouting these young players for the six football cluster centers that we have established in Mangochi, Zomba, Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Karonga and from there, best players will be selected to fee in to the Luwinga Inclusive Academy in Mzuzu. We have already seen that players from our Academy are already being featured in the junior national teams and in few years’ time, these products will be part of the senior national teams so it’s a process that we have to embrace in order to produce stars”, said Kuyera.
Kuyera has since urged parents and teachers for the kids to safeguard them so that they realise their dreams.
In his remarks, FIFA Talent ID Expert Steven Morrow said he is impressed with the talent that he has seen in Malawi.
“The Talent ID program is an ideal initiative to develop future national team players. At FIFA, we believe that every young talent should have a chance to grow and we work very hard to support our Member Associations both in technical and financial aspects so that they have a capacity to unearth the talent. We want to find the best talent and select them for the academy where they will be nurtured so that by the time they get to the junior national teams, they will be top players. I have seen that there the a lot of talented and potential young players that if we give them an opportunity to be developed by best coaches at a young, they will be top player,” said Morrow.
The FIFA Talent ID Program aims at uncovering young footballers between the ages of 10 and 12 who will be part of the FAM Football Cluster Centers and later on feed in to Luwinga Inclusive Academy.
The program started at Mbwadzulu Primary School in Monkey on Friday and then at Mangochi Stadium on Saturday. On Sunday, the team will be at Makanjira for the ssme exercise before moving to other cluster centers in the coming weeks.
Morrow is leading the exercise together with the Luwinga Inclusive Academy Talent Coach Thabo Senong and FAM Technical Department Officials.
