Legendary Ghanaian Coach E.K. Afranie has lauded Airtel Ghana for the excellent execution of the company’s Airtel Rising Stars (ARS) Zonal Competitions, which came to an end in Kumasi.
The finals of the competition will take place in Sunyani from July 19 to 20, 2014. According to the veteran coach, who is a member of the technical committee of ARS, the programme has so far lived to the expectation of discovering very talented but little known young footballers.
He pointed out that right from the start of the competition at Ho in the Volta Region, it became obvious that this year’s ARS was going to be heavily patronized by both girls and boys who nurtured the desire to exhibit their talents on a big platform like what ARS offers.
He cited Bright Obuo, Joseph Asilenvi and Anita Agordzo Joy, Dogbey Faithful who emerged as top talents in the boys’ and girls’ division as youngsters to watch out from zone 1.
He further disclosed that he was equally impressed by the exquisite talent he witnessed on the field of play at all the other zonal games. “Take for instance what happened in Cape Coast. Teams from this zone – Central and Western, displayed high quality football and such great sportsmanship to the amazement of all present. The same happened in all the other zones”.
He also acknowledged that Airtel Ghana, through its Airtel Rising Stars programme, was truly contributing strongly to the future of soccer in Ghana.
“All these youngsters being discovered today will be the toast of Ghana football in some few years to come. I find it humbling that I am part of such a great initiative and so will be contributing to the shaping of such a bright future”, he stated.
“I am really looking forward to the national finals, which will take place in Sunyani on 19th and 20th July 2014 and I can’t wait to see which region emerges as overall winner for ARS 2014.
The Head of Corporate Communications and CSR at Airtel Ghana, Donald Gwira, on his part said one of the key benefits of participating in ARS was that winners get the opportunity to have their first taste of international football as they get to play against other winners from 16 other countries in the Airtel Rising Stars Africa Championships, which will come off in Gabon in August 2014.
Airtel Rising Stars is a sports talent initiative introduced by Airtel that seeks to discover and nurture talented under 17 years male and female footballers who otherwise would have gone unnoticed and untapped.
The initiative runs in all Airtel operations across Africa and seeks to bring to light the skills of these young and talented ones by giving them the platform to become world class football stars.