DIGICEL KICKSTART CLINICS PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS GREAT FOOTBALL TALENT IN EL SALVADOR

Tuesday 17th May 2016 – San Salvador, El Salvador: Digicel hosted its Kickstart Clinic in El Salvador at the Educating a Salvadorian Foundation (FESA) school where 30 aspiring young football players from local clubs and football academies showcased their talent in the hopes of impressing the Manchester City FC coaches and being selected for the upcoming Digicel Academy.

Football Delivery Manager for the City Football Schools and lead coach for the Digicel Kickstart Clinic, Lewis Childs, said; “We were very impressed by the level of talent and ability we saw at the Digicel Kickstart Clinics in El Salvador. They are definitely a capable group of players who have worked hard to improve themselves – both on and off the pitch.”

The Kickstart Clinics programme has helped thousands of young football players from the Caribbean and Central America benefit from world class training delivered by coaches from leading football clubs. This year, in partnership with English Premier League side, Manchester City FC, Digicel hosted the Clinics for the first time in El Salvador.

Digicel El Salvador CEO, Ignacio Roman, was excited to be hosting the country’s top young football players for two days of intensive training, saying; “The goal of the Digicel Kickstart Clinics is to provide talent development opportunities to the nation’s players by unlocking their potential – both on and off the field. We know that there is great footballing talent in El Salvador and so we want to give them a good foundation to be great.”

The coaches carefully observed the players’ development and abilities over the two day programme and the young players certainly gave it their all. At the end of the Clinic, the top three players selected to represent El Salvador at the Digicel Kickstart Academy were Mauricio Guzman, Mario Hernandez, Saul Rosales.

The players will join other top players from across the Caribbean and Central America at the week-long Digicel Academy where they will receive another round of intensive training. The boys will then have the opportunity to impress the Manchester City coaches further, in the hopes of being among the top players who will be given the chance of a lifetime to train at the City Football Academy, Manchester City FC’s elite training and youth development facility in Manchester, England.

ENDS

ABOUT DIGICEL GROUP

Digicel Group is a total communications and entertainment provider with operations in 33 markets in the Caribbean, Central America and Asia Pacific. After more than 15 years of operation, total investment to date stands at over US$5 billion worldwide. The company is renowned for delivering best value, best service and best network.

Digicel is the lead sponsor of Caribbean, Central American and Pacific sports teams, including the Special Olympics teams throughout these regions. Digicel sponsors the West Indies cricket team and is also the title sponsor of the Caribbean Premier League. In the Pacific, Digicel is the proud sponsor of several national rugby teams and also sponsors the Vanuatu cricket team.

Digicel also runs a host of community-based initiatives across its markets and has set up Digicel Foundations in Haiti, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea and Trinidad and Tobago which focus on educational, cultural and social development programs.

About Manchester City Football Club

Manchester City FC is an English Premier League club whose roots began in East Manchester in 1880 as St Mark’s West Gorton. It officially became Manchester City FC in 1894 and has since then gone onto win the European Cup Winners’ Cup, four League Championship titles, including two Premier League titles in the last three years (2012, 2014), and five FA Cups. Manchester City FC is one of four teams comprising the City Football Group and counts New York City FC, Melbourne City FC and Yokohama F-Marinos among its sister clubs.

Under manager Manuel Pellegrini, the Club plays its domestic and Champions’ League home fixtures at the Etihad Stadium, a spectacular 55,000 seat arena that City have called home since 2003. Today, the Stadium sits on the wider Etihad Campus, which also encompasses the City Football Academy, a world leading first team training and youth development facility located in the heart of East Manchester. Featuring a 7,000 capacity Academy Stadium, the City Football Academy is also where Manchester City Women’s Football Club and the Elite Development Squad train on a daily basis and play their competitive home games.

For more information, please visit www.mcfc.co.uk

Sport Commentary

In my last commentary not posted the value to the region and in particular Jamaica cannot be over stressed. This is a great to later become a world class football power house. We have players from Jamaica doing well in major leagues worldwide. We just do not have the fields and other money/resource incentives to develop and keep these players at home.

Digicel and other private entities have the resources and they tie the sport to their advertising projects and to enhance their corporate images. It is a win win for them … hopefully increased sales recoup these expenses.

Vision supports this KICKSTART programme and congratulate Digicel for their leadership and foresight in this regard.

Hopeton O’Connor-Dennie is Senior International Correspondent & Photojournalist for Vision Newspaper Canada.