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A football management firm, Soccertime Africa (STA) in collaboration with Heritage Securities Limited has organized U-20 football tournament for division one players to unleash their talents in order to be selected into football clubs in Europe, Spain and other countries.

On that background, FC Lugano Scout and German Area agent have visited Ghana to explore the local market and discover potential football players who are fit for purpose in order to be groomed for international football clubs.

The participating teams include Liberty Professional U-20, Still Believe FC, Accra Youth FC, Augsburg FC, Spartans FC, Unique FC, Medeama U-20 and Sports Life FC.

The Managing Partner of Soccertime Africa, Edem Kofi Ansah said it is an opportunity for football clubs to identify talents in the local league Division one and absorb them into renowned football teams in abroad.

He indicated that they put together some of the best talent developing teams and give them the opportunity to play and be selected into big teams abroad.

“We do this for young talents to be showcased to football clubs, technical directors and football partners and the key aspect is to get scouts who for the past 18months have led to placements of 12 football players in various European clubs,” he stated.

According to him, they have two scouts from FC Lugano and Austria together with teams in Ghana that are mainly for talents development to play in order to be scouted.

Mr. Ansah noted that clubs that locally pick talents from the tournament usually find them useful and allow them to play in foreign teams which become a starting point for many budding footballers to start their career.

Citing a long list of local players currently playing in foreign clubs, he said they organize the tournament twice every year because they see it an opportunity to empower young talents and create an avenue for them to fulfill their dreams and aspirations.

“This is another way we can develop Ghanaian football and also get the boys out of the streets by empowering them to become stars in the future. The more of this tournaments we can put together the more we can play football and get seen internationally especially in our country where football is still at an incipient stage,” he posited.

According to him, a lot more scouting and promotion need to be done in aspects of the game that has to be developed to enable the local players break barriers and compete with their peers globally.

“Our long term goal in the sub-region is to build a firm with continental presence to bring players who are scattered all over closer to the scouts and agents who are seeking to develop them for bigger teams in abroad,” Mr Ansah intimated.

Even though funding has become a challenge, he indicated that the idea is to replicate the tournament in other regions that are also endowed with local best footballers.

The Managing Director of Heritage Securities, the title sponsor of the tournament, Mr Mark Darko said football is no longer just for fun, it is business and therefore if players are adequately educated in financial management and guided to consciously make prudent investment decisions at an early stage of their lives, the value of their hard earned income will never be paled into insignificance as sadly experienced by some players in recent times.

He noted that the portfolio management team of Heritage Securities Limited has carefully designed and structured fund management products targeted at footballers that seek to preserve capital /purchasing power of their money and hedge against inflation.

Mr. Darko added that the product, dubbed “The Goal Account” also builds wealth by generating interesting returns to the players and maximise their income. With Heritage Securities as wealth management partners of footballers, a great future awaits them all.