3rd Edition of Airtel Rising Stars Soccer Tournament Slated for August

Ghana's girls team celebrate winning last year's Africa Championships

The 2013 edition of the annual soccer talent search program, Airtel Rising Stars, will be held between the 5^th and 11^th August at Kangaru High School in Embu County.

The programme launched three years ago in conjunction with English Premier League reigning champions Manchester United will start its search for the next football stars during the ongoing Kenya Secondary School Sports Association (KSSSA) term 2B games.

The national games finals will be held in Nairobi where the winning boys and girls teams will earn the right to represent Kenya in the Africa Championships which shifts to Lagos, Nigeria after a successful edition in Mombasa, Kenya last year. Seventeen teams from across Africa will participate in the Africa Championships.

Speaking when he unveiled a Kshs. 10.5 million sponsorship for this year’s Kenyan edition in Nairobi, Airtel Kenya Brand and Corporate Communications Director, Dick Omondi said, “The programme is designed to provide a structured platform for scouts, coaches, football authorities and other partners to tap into a vast pool of upcoming talent and build a strong soccer talent feeder systems for our league and national teams.”

Omondi revealed that there will be an exclusive soccer clinic in the Democratic Republic of Congo which will be held under the tutelage of Manchester United Soccer Schools Coaching Camp. “Select players who excel at the Africa Championships will converge for the training clinic where they will receive top drawer technical coursers akin to that provided at the Manchester United Academy,” he said.

The Rising Stars programme is an Africa-wide program that seeks to provide a platform for upcoming soccer talent under the age of seventeen to showcase their talents and have an opportunity to further their football skills. In Kenya, the initiative targets boys and girls in secondary schools.

This year’s programme will also be held under partnership with Samsung. The electronics company will be the official device partner of the tournament in a deal that will give gifted youngsters an opportunity to participate in a football app contest for Samsung on Android. Young techies will submit their apps where a panel of judges will pick the best 2 apps for commercialization.

Some of the matches from all over Africa will be aired Live on DSTV.

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