Tanzania: Man United’s Legend Andy Cole Launches Talent Scouting Programme in Dar Es Salaam

Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)

Japheth Kazenga

29 June 2011

MANCHESTER United legend, Andrew Cole, on Wednesday launched a new football talent scouting programme dubbed ‘Airtel Rising Stars’ in Dar es Salaam, which aims at identifying and developing talents in the African continent.

The programme, which is sponsored by mobile phone service providers, Airtel, will be run by English Premier League champions, Manchester United, and gears towards providing opportunity for U-17 male and female players to showcase their talents in front of agents, coaches and eventually secure chance to develop their career professionally.

It will involve 12 secondary schools in Tanzania, in which nine will be from Dar es Salaam and three others from Arusha and Morogoro.

The former England star, Cole, said during the launch at Makongo Secondary School that he was proud to be involved in talent scouting and developing in the continent and was looking forward to providing his expertise to the youngsters.

“It has been a great honour for me to get the opportunity to participate in this programme and I look forward to it… I hope we can work together and get the next rising football star from Africa”, said Cole amid cheers from enthusiastic children that were eager to have a glimpse of the famed retired goal getter.

The programme, which will run for three months, will start from the regional level and culminate with a special football clinic at the national level that will be held in Tanzania and Gabon.

Manchester United representative, Nick Humphrey, said their recent tour of Nigeria and South Africa, which was part of the programme, was a true eye opener on football’s power to change the lives of youngsters in the continent.

“In Africa, there are 42 million fans of Manchester United and we thank Airtel for connecting us with them. We are proud of this programme and we are ready to provide our skills to the youngsters and help the latter take their talent to a higher level”, said Humphrey.

“We are ready to help African kids realize their dreams the way Andy Cole did when he was given chance”, he added.

Manchester United academies will provide its experts during the clinics, which will be held after the regional and national tournaments. Deputy Minister for Information, Youth, Culture and Sports, Fenella Mukangara, said she felt the programme has come at the right time, adding that the government will cooperate with all people involved in it to ensure it is run successfully.

Airtel Managing Director, Sam Elangalloor, said his company would like to see the programme garner support from the society from the lower to the national level.

“Airtel Rising Stars programme aims at giving football agents, coaches and other stakeholders chance to watch talents and promote the latter for the betterment of domestic leagues and national teams”, he added.

A total of 500 youngsters are expected to start registering for the programme at the end of next month, with 11 other countries in the continent also set to benefit from the programme.

The former England international, Cole is the second-highest goal scorer in English Premier League history with a total of 187 goals, placing him behind Alan Shearer who has 260 goals.

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