SportPesa CEO Ronald Karauri and Extrem Sports CEO Mohammed Husseinsigning an agreement.PHOTO/Timothy Olobulu
NAIROBI, Kenya April 16- Arsenal legend Sol Campbell will land in Nairobi on Friday ahead of a five-day football coaching camp to be conducted at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies from may 23-25.
Campbell, a member of Arsenal’s ‘invincibles’ squad of the 2004/2005 season will be accompanied by three coaches from the Arsenal Academy who will train 60 local coaches courtesy of a partnership between betting firm SportPesa and the English Premier League giants.
SportPesa are Arsenal’s official betting partners in Africa and one of the benefits of the agreement is to help develop coaching capacity in Kenya by organizing two coaching clinics annually in the country.
Paul Drew Tyler, Mohamed Moaz Awadelkarim and Rupen Shah, all coaches of the world renowned Arsenal Academy will be in the country to help coaches learn how to ‘play the Arsenal way’.
“We want to build coaching capacity in Kenya because for a long time, Kenyan coaches have not been at par with the rest of the world. We are doing all this with our aim being Kenya qualifying for the 2022 World Cup and it will be our joy to see the entire technical bench made up of Kenyan coaches,” SportPesa CEO Ronald Karauri said.
All the 16 coaches from the recently concluded KPL Under-20 championship as well as a selection of coaches from the ninth edition of the Super Eight Championship and grass-root coaches from Kenya’s eight regions will attend.
SportPesa have signed a five-year partnership with Extreme Sports who will run the program on their behalf.
“SportPesa is investing in the future of Kenya’s football. We hope that the coaches will get empowered and translate this experience and skills into the clubs or league they coach so that we see better games on the pitch that will attract fans to the stadiums. This camp is the beginning; we plan to expand this to more clubs and players in future.” Karauri added.
The objectives for the camp will entail sharpening the skills of the coaches using global coaching standards as well as developing a local football curriculum that enshrines the Arsenal academy program for coaches.
The six-day training will have two sessions including theory and practical lessons. Among the topics of discussion during these sessions will be profile of a good footballer, player centered coaching, how to identify player talent and assess good players as well as developing players’ strengths and balancing their weaknesses amongst others.
The training camp aims to have the trained coaches form the Arsenal Kenya SportPesa talent scouting as well as have them conduct holiday camps to select players for future training camps.
The coaches will also be evaluated monthly by an appointed talent management company and they shall also provide monthly reports on the progress of the players that they would have selected.
