By Ikome Christie-Noella Eposi
The National Football Academy better known by its French acronym as ANAFOOT has selected 50 players (25 boys and 25 girls) from the South West region to take part in a training session for possible selection into the academy.
The Anafoot delegation to the South West region was headed by Fomum Victorine, the National Assistant Director of Anafoot who noted that, they have already been to Bamenda and Bafoussam to carry out the same exercise.
“From Buea we shall move to Limbe, Douala and thereafter the South region” Fomun told reporters
Quizzed on the selection criteria, the national assistant director said, “Age, morphology and talent between the ages of 11 and 12 are the aspects we take into consideration before selecting the players. The aim of ANAFOOT is to help Cameroonians come out with the talent that God has given them and make Cameroon serve as a real nursery of football”.
After having selected the 50 players from each region, Madam Fomum Victorine added that all the players shall be assembled in a particular area and another selection test will be carried out to fully determine those who will be accepted into the academy and that will be done in the months of June or July.
As to how they are going to be trained, she added that, there are regional poll heads and their assistants and educators who will help the players throughout their training period.
“The players will have training sessions twice or thrice a week depending on the academic program of the children because we do not impede on their academics”.
It is worthy of note that the availability of an academy of this magnitude is another means put in place by the head of states to create employment to the Cameroonian youth. Also, all the players are supposed to come from the various divisions that make up the South west region and not just Buea and Limbe.
“We decided to use these two areas because most of our poll heads are from Limbe and Buea and also, the two areas in question have fields which can be used”. Victorine Fomum added
“The initial objective of Anafoot is to help children do sports and go to school so we can never deter a child from his or her education”. She concluded
The General Manager of ANAFOOT, Carl Enow Ngachu earlier mentioned in the previous year that, ANAFOOT is around to detect and train young men and women to shine in football and education. “ANAFOOT also has a mission to train candidates in areas of sports medicine, physiotherapy, sports managers and create jobs for the nation’s youths.