Dream Soccer Academy Weighs In On Building Men, Not Just Footballers

Ace Manyu-based football Academy, Dream Soccer – organised a three-day capacity workshop on youths and stakeholders to strengthen their capacity in the fight against hate speech,violence, miss information online and offline, followed by a 3-day football tournament to raise awareness, in view to promote love and social development amid denizens. 20 teams took part in the mini-tourney.

The programme ran from May 15-18, and activities on the final day saw Kesham Viallage from AKWAYA pit BACHUO-NTAI in both Male and female categories with kesham wining both categories.

in the context of the project all the team’s were victorious as participants in the programme.

For starters, Dream Soccer Academy is a training scheme in which professional football clubs scout young football players. Being a part of Dream Soccer Academy does not guarantee becoming a football player though, far from it. What it does mean is that the organisation spotted something special in a kid that they believe that could become a football player.

In Cameroon, there are over 900 official football academies, some of which do not have a football team in a professional division. Despite this, Dream Soccer Club produced possibly the best players in cameroonian football: Arsene Mangana; currently at EFBC, Brenda Tabe; currently with Lekie FF and the Indomitable Lionesses, Enow Adolf (2021 Elite One top scorer) amongst others.

Dream Soccer Academy operates either full board or day camps, which mean that young players will live full time at the academy, or they will still live at home but go to where the academy is located several times a week, at the club’s base in Manyu.

All the players at the academy continue their school education. In fact, their normal education is still given a lot of importance, and emphasis is placed on good results. In some cases, very poor results at school can lead to the player being expelled from their academy. Generally speaking, in Cameroon, academy players tend to go to their normal school while a lot of academies in the rest of the continent undertake the education of their players.

Lads at Dream Soccer have their footballing education always performed by the club at their dedicated training ground.

Training sessions at the academy greatly varies. There is a lot to be taught in so many different domains but generally training sessions aim to improve the young players’ physical attributes, their skill and technique with the ball and their positioning and tactical play off the ball. This means that some sessions focus on developing stamina and particular muscle groups, other sessions focus on improving dribbling, shooting, passing etc., and finally some sessions focus on teaching how to press as a team, what to do in certain situations and much more.

It is worth noting at this point that Dream Soccer Academy is not easy to be a part of.

A lot of discipline is put on the youngsters, and the rate of conversion from academy player to professional is extremely hugh.

On top of this, the players will have to make sacrifices: players are not allowed to play football at school to avoid injuries for example.

At Dream Soccer, a kid can only legally be a part of the franchise between the ages of 9 and 16, and while laws are different across Cameroon and Africa, that is the general age for a football academy. Being picked up by Dream Soccer can happen at any age though, and because there are so many quality football players that slip through the cracks every year, the southwest regional league team is keen if they sniff out talent, regardless of age.

In Cameroon, clubs have several training schemes operating at the same time, so if the training academy is not right for a young player’s age, it becomes a worry.

There are many different ways to be scouted by Dream Soccer. Of course, the first thing needed by a kid is to be a very, very good footballer.

Players that are offered academy places by the club’s C.E.O Dahiru sulemanu are usually the best players in Manyu, Southwest and consistent excellent performances at local clubs or school teams.

Dream Soccer does have a network of scouts that keep an eye out for the next superstar.
The scouts are not necessarily looking for the best player on the day, as they know that any player can have a bad or good day.

They are looking for players who they think they can turn into professional players, so attitude is a bigger criterion. Intelligence on the pitch is another criterion that scouts at Dream Soccer look for a lot, as intelligent players are much better at learning.