#playerpathways

Kenyan international goalkeeper Patrick Matasi was on hand and the premier facility KCB SPORTS CLUB to meet the players and present the winners of the tournament at the weekend which saw the very first Future Lions International Invitational Tournament in Kenya. Many private schools were invited to attend and over 400 students from u9, u11 and u14’s fought it out to be crowned Future Lions Champions.

Future Lions has always been dedicated to the development and support of grass roots coaching and player development and Kenya is a key area in which they are proud to have a very strong presence. The Manager of our operation in Nairobi is former professional goalkeeper George Opiyo.

“George has done such an amazing job in organising this event and we are so proud to have him as part of our management team”. Said Future Lions CEO Ritchie Juene.

Top players in the tournament

*Mavin Baraka- Consolata School

* Ryan Ochillo-Consolata school

*Jason Kikata- Soka Africa

*Gill Gates -St. Mary's School

*Braam Samuel -St. Mary's school

TOP TEAMS WERE

*Consolata school

*St. Mary's school

*Soka Africa

Future Lions will also be working closely with the schools in Kenya and in other parts of Africa to offer students the opportunity to experience English football over the coming months and already a number of schools are participating in our group visit programme.

Special thanks to Urban Ambulance services for ensuring all the players were safe for the duration of the tournament and to top Kenyan premier league referee Brooks Philip Elijah who was in charge of the officials.

It is the intention that Future Lions can identify talented African players to recruit to our academies in England, USA and China so they can begin their journey to becoming professional footballers via our carefully established player pathways.

Future Lions International are delighted to announce the arrival of Zimbabwe teenage sensation and National team player Tino Benza.

The 18 year old striker / winger, who is the youngest player to score in the Zimbabwe premiership, who has scored for Zimbabwe u18 and was recently selected to represent the u23 young warriors for their Afcon fixture vs Mozambique, has decided to head to Future Lions instead of starting the league season back home as he feels he wants to explore the opportunities available to him in Europe. And what better place to go than Future Lions International Football academy who have now helped over 20 players with their football careers in the last year.

Tino had a brief spell at Future Lions pre season and scored 3 goals in 2 matches. He commented “It was a great experience... it was very technical; it’s different from Africa because you have to use more of your brains than your speed or anything. I’m going to be with Future Lions until I find a team. I have my visa now and I’m all ready to go!”.

Commenting on the U23 Zimbabwe call up Tino said “Its an amazing feeling, when I heard the news I was travelling, I wasn’t expecting it but it means a lot and gives me hope for the future”.

Tinos father, Innocent, who was still playing in the Zimbabwe premier league at 46 said of his sons departure to England that it’s a wonderful opportunity, we are a serious football family and with Tino being called into the u23 and was already captain on the u17 it shows he is a developing talent.”

At Future Lions we certainly believe He is a young boy with undoubted ability. At 14 he was already playing in division one but there was little press coverage. At 17 he was the youngest scorer in the premier league and at 18 he has already been called into the u23. We hope that we can play a pivotal role in whatever is next to come for Tino.

We are also delighted that of all the academies he chose ours and we believe that says a lot about what we are trying to achieve ourselves. Our ambitions not only match but exceed both Tino and his fathers. We are passionate about giving young international players realistic opportunities and we very hard on our recruitment and marketing. Players like Tino will hopefully go on to inspire another group of young players wanting similar opportunities and the stronger the players are that we recruit then the greater opposition we can play against during the academy programme and this shows our commitment to being the best option for all young footballers looking to progress in football in Europe, China and USA. We are also in a unique position to study Tino’s abilities closely with our gps tracking, heart rate monitoring and performance analysis tools which are similar to those used at premier league clubs. Not many other academies would offer this kind of support to young players.

After a spell at Corby Town where he steered them to the play off finals last season as first-team manager, along with his work developing young players through the academy,  Steve Kinniburgh is back at The Future Lions and is roaring to get started.

Steve, who is a UEFA A Licenced coach and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the Future Lions, got started straight away as he takes on the role as Head of Coaching and began working with the International Squad last week.

He commented,  “I'm delighted to be back at The Future Lions and to see the growth it has made in the last two season is fantastic. I’ve only been back in a week but already see how professional and well organised it is here.”

Kinniburgh joins Luke Graham and Paul White and this seemed to be something that excited him.  “Working with Luke and Paul on a daily basis is great and to have people round about you who understand and have a fantastic knowledge of football is a breath of fresh air.”

When asked about his new role, Steve said that he was “Really looking forward to helping with the players' progression especially with the current international players we have in as some have shown some exciting things on the training pitch already. The Future Lions is growing fast and I’m delighted to be back involved with everyone.”

We welcome him back and look forward to catching up with him soon for further updates.

Razvan Mocanu, who has been working hard this season to climb the ladder after being signed by Mitch Austin at Sileby Rangers and later moving to Kempston Rovers at Step 4, has finally made the breakthrough he has been looking for.

Last Friday he spent the day at the Mansfield Town Fc academy and trained with their u21 squad. After a successful morning Raz was offered a place on next seasons Degree programme and the chance to train full time with Mansfield U21 pro team.

Many of their players playing with non league teams on a Saturday to get experience much as Raz has been doing this year.

Whilst Raz ideally hopes to find a pathway into paid full time football, this offer represents a fantastic opportunity to train with some fantastic players and learn from some experienced veteran ex pro footballers whilst in the process.