Over
1,000 young amateur footballers turned out on Saturday, 2nd and Sunday, 3rd
June at Nike’s The Chance football trials hosted at the Nike Football Training
Centre.Soweto, taking to the field to impress the coaches.
Only
12 players from Johannesburg were selected in the first round of The Chance
regional trials: Tumelo Nkabane, Nicholas Mynhardt, Njabulo Mahori, Keron
McAurthur, Byrone Matthews, Mpumelelo Mangena, Charles Tsotetsi, Cyprian
Khambule, Melusi Zulu, Andrew Goncalves, Miguel Dias and Manda Ndou. The 12
hopefuls will join the other regional selections in July, where they will
compete for the only three available spots to go to Barcelona, Spain in August.
The
head coaches, Shaun Bartlett, Craig Rosslee, Tebogo Moloi and Arthur Zwane were
all in agreement about the amount of talent they saw. “It gives me and my
fellow coaches great satisfaction to see the unbelievable talent amongst this
country’s youngsters. Through ‘The Chance’, Nike is giving these boys a good
and rare opportunity to show what they can do with the hope of getting noticed
and developing their footballing careers. Some of these players have the
potential to be playing currently within the professional structures in South
Africa,” said Bartlett.
One
of the selected boys, Njabulo Mahori (18) of Vosloorus (Johannesburg) said he
is relishing his prospects of making the final cut. “For me, being picked as a
finalist is only the beginning of a hard journey. I’m happy to have made it but
now I have to focus, remain grounded and make sure that I stay fit until the
finals come around next month so I can show everyone my best,” added Mahori.
Youngsters
between the ages of 16 – 21 years interested in attending the trials in the
other cities should sms their ID number to the number corresponding with their
city below to be registered;
·
Cape
Town – 45829
·
Port
Elizabeth – 45832
·
Bloemfontein
– 45830
·
Durban
– 45831
The
rest of the regional trials will be held as follows: 16th - 17th June in Cape
Town, 17th June in Port Elizabeth, 23rd – 24th June in Durban and 24th June in
Bloemfontein.
The
Chance’ 2012 is a unique global football talent search that gives young
amateur, unsigned footballers from around the world an opportunity to prove
themselves on an elite stage and take their game to the highest level. South
African goalkeeper, Reyaad Pieterse, who won a ‘one-in-eight' spot in The
Chance 2011 and joined the Nike Academy in the UK, recently signed a
professional contract with Ireland-based Shamrock Rovers FC.
Created
to support talented youngsters who are not currently in the professional game,
‘The Chance’ will allow the best young footballers to train and play at the
leading facilities in world football, showcase their skills in front of elite
coaches and mentors, as they develop and improve their talent, with the
ultimate aim of getting noticed.
Players
from 55 countries around the world will take part in ‘The Chance’ trials in
2012. The best 100 players from these trials, watched by top Nike coaches, will
then travel to the global finals in Spain, to be held at FC Barcelona’s famed
youth academy. There, they will experience world class facilities, top-notch
coaching, and input from nutritionists, psychologists and fitness conditioners
as they progress in the programme.
From
this group of 16 players, four players will be selected to train and play with
the Nike Academy, now in its second year in partnership with the Premier
League, based in the United Kingdom. This will form the last leg of the
tour. One player will join the Nike
Academy 2012/13 full time for two months and play with the team to showcase
their talent to professional scouts and coaches.
