AfricaPress-Tanzania: REPRESENTATIVES from the Spanish Premier League (La Liga) will be jetting into Tanzania in December to scout for new talents during the 11th edition of East African Youth Football Tournament.
Organized by the ‘Future Stars Academy, the event is christened Chipkizi Cup 2020 and will be held from December 8th to 13th this year, at the Tanganyika Game Trackers (TGT) grounds in Arusha. The tournament has so far attracted participants from all the five countries of East African Community.
Through the La Liga Africa branch, the Spanish top football divisions will be recruiting the talented players during the Chipkizi Cup and this will provide opportunity for them to play beyond Tanzania borders.
According to Alfred Itaeli, the Director of Future Stars Academy, Kampala Elite from Uganda, Kenya’s Ligi Ndogo outfit, the Fountain Gates of Dodoma and for the first time Pamba FC will also bring young footballers to Arusha.
The organizers stated here that the National Microfinance Bank (NMB) continues to support the Chipkizi Cup, which last year had attracted more than 168 soccer teams, which was a record hard to break, with more than 110 teams coming from outside Tanzania.
In another development, Japan which was also intending to participate in this year’ tourney, was forced to shelve the idea following the upsurge of the second wave of Covid-19 which has now grounded young Tokyo players to fly to Arusha.
Still, as Itaeli said, there are new teams from Tanzania will participate to brighten the annual Youth soccer tourney.
The NMB Bank’s representative, Lembris Lesion said the institution has been supporting Future Academy as well as the Chipkizi Cup for three years now and the bank wants to ensure that the youth become professional players and transform football from recreational activity into commercial soccer.
“We also have Watoto and Chipukizi accounts to give young players good starting points towards savings discipline once they start earning from their football endeavours,” said Lesion.
