The aspiring young players who were selected to attend the Digicel Kickstart Academy and their proud coaches. From L-R: Coach Robert Anderson, Leedger Lajeunesse, lead coach for the Kickstart Clinic, Alan Dixon, Mackendy Richeme, Coach Ross McKay and Fritz Paul
PRESS RELEASE – The Digicel Kickstart Clinic has just wrapped up in Haiti where Manchester City FC coaches got to see the budding talent in one of the Caribbean’s leading football countries.
Although the players and the coaches did not speak the same language, the aspiring young footballers did not disappoint and delivered on the coaches’ expectations during the two-day clinic, quickly adapting to the training and learning as much as they could.
Digicel Kickstart lead coach and CFS Project Manager, Alan Dixon, was pleased with the boys’ performance, saying; “We took the boys through our training routine and they quickly embraced the philosophy we introduced to them and the language barrier wasn’t an issue at all. Football is a global game and once you put the ball on the pitch, it all flows from there.”
The Manchester City FC football philosophy encourages players to be expressive and creative so that they can play ‘beautiful football’. Alan explained that the boys were well in tune with this concept saying; “It was encouraging to see how well they were able to understand the training and what we wanted them to do. They had a good attitude – on and off the pitch – and they all worked hard to make the most of the time they spent at the Digicel Kickstart Clinic.”
At the end of the Clinic, Alan and his coaching team selected three boys to represent Haiti at the Digicel Kickstart Academy: 14 year-old Fritz Paul, 15 year-old Leedger Lajeunesse and 16 year-old Mackendy Richeme.
The Manchester City FC coaches will travel to 14 countries across the Caribbean and Central America to select players to attend the Digicel Academy. From the Academy, they will select the top players to continue training with them for a week at the City Football Academy, Manchester City’s elite training and youth development facility in Manchester, England. While there, they will get a unique opportunity to experience life as a professional footballer – learning the tactics and strategies employed by Manchester City FC first team players.
The Digicel Kickstart Clinic programme is a once in a lifetime opportunity for thousands of aspiring young footballers. Through the Kickstart Clinics, participants not only learn football skills and technical abilities, but also develop an ethos of professionalism and a good attitude – key attributes of successful people across all walks of life.
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 14 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 programmes.
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, 13% of which is owned by a Chinese Media Capital-led consortium, 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.
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