Fourteen talented teenagers from Zambia are in South Africa’s capital city, Pretoria, to participate in a week of football at the COPA Coca-Cola Southern and Eastern Africa Business Unit (SEABU) camp where they will be coming together with 67 youngsters from seven countries over a period of five days. This will be a unique opportunity for them to forge friendships and gain valuable team skills both on and off the pitch.
They will also be putting aside what makes them different – age, nationality, language, culture and background – in order to celebrate their common interests – namely, their love of the game. The camp will be run at the state-of-the-art High Performance Centre at the University of Pretoria from October 10 –15, 2016. For the participants, the camp will form the pinnacle of this year’s COPA Coca-Cola tournament, which has seen more than 1.3 million teens compete in over 60 countries globally.
The international Copa Coca-Cola grassroots football tournament is organized on an annual basis by the leading global beverage giant Coca-Cola, and helps to identify and reward footballing teen talent whilst creating an opportunity for young people to pursue their passion for football.
Takunda Jinda, Coca-Cola Marketing Activations Manager for Zambia and Malawi, said: “Together, Coca-Cola and football can influence society like nothing else. Football is a great life-coach that teaches our children skills on the pitch that are invaluable in every aspect of life. Camaraderie, integrity, perseverance amongst many others. We hope that, through initiatives like Copa Coca-Cola, they can do their bit make their world a better place.”
Zambia’s squad is comprised of teenagers from across the nation, aged between 13 and 16, who were identified as stand-out players following the 2016 Copa Coca-Cola school tournament. The five-day trip to South Africa will be packed with training sessions, workshops, games, events, coaching and guidance from some of top Copa Coca-Cola coaches.
Lets keep tabs on these youngsters and see how many of them will make it through to professional careers, either locally in Zambia, or better still abroad in more competitive leagues. Ten years from now how many of them will have passed thru our U17, U20 & U23 National teams and into our main national team? The training, mentoring etc begins now…
is it to participate or to compete? The two are very different and wen nicely taken can be used to achieve good results, Zambians are good at participating and not competing .
Are they really camping at university of pretoria? as far as i know pretoria university is closed due to ongoing students unrest in south africa. ..I just stay near to the university. ..no one is allowed to get inside except the police. ..so where are they camping so that I visit them?