* We have a number of players in the pipleline, both male and female, that will be given European opportunities this year
* We are excited to see our academy players putting Malawian football on the map overseas
By Duncan Mlanjira
Success for Lilongwe-based Ascent Soccer academy keeps unfolding and this time making history of Malawi junior football development programme by sending first players to ply their professional football in Europe — following successful pre-season trials they underwent at Iceland’s UMF Afturelding.
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Precious Kapunda (19) and Levison Munyenyembe (18) have been signed by Ungmennafélagið Afturelding, commonly known as UMF Afturelding, which is a professional Icelandic multi-sports club based in the town of Mosfellsbaer — just north of the capital Reykjavik.
The club that was founded in 1909, plays in the second tier of Icelandic football and Munyenyembe and Kapunda will train with its Under-19 as well as the first team — eligible to play for both sides this season.
In its press statement, Ascent Soccer describes Levison Munyenyembe, whose talent was tapped from Mzuzu, as “a quick, tenacious winger/forward with an eye for goal” and Precious Kapunda, from Blantyre, as “a central midfield player with an exceptional range of passing”.
“Both players joined Ascent Soccer as 12-year-olds and were instrumental in Ascent’s 2022 unbeaten tour of South Africa, which included a 3-0 win of the Mamelodi Sundowns U-17s.”
Maguire (left) accompanied the players in Iceland
Ascent Soccer founder George Maguire, who was voted Best Non-Citizen Sportsperson by the prestigious Malawi Sports Awards in 2019, is quoted in the statement as saying: “This is a next level opportunity for our academy players.
“We’re delighted they’ve got a year in Europe to hone their skills and earn the opportunity for a bigger move if successful. We have a number of players in the pipeline, both male and female, that will be given European opportunities this year.
“We are excited to see our academy players putting Malawian football on the map overseas,” said the academy’s founding member, whose fruits of success was also honoured by Football Association of Malawi (FAM) with Lifetime Achievement award for exceptional excellence in youth development initiatives.
According to Wikipedia, UMF Afturelding are renowned for producing Iceland’s national team goalkeeper Hannes Þór Halldórsson whom they signed in 2005 and went on cap 77 times and appeared at UEFA Euro 2016 and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Goalkeeper Hannes Þór Halldórsson
It also has on record of playing host to former Manchester United reserve player Aaron Burns in 2007, who played two games for Afturelding and scored one goal before returning to England.
Iceland football is quite known through its international participation through Reykjavik FC, whose best European success was in 2009-10 UEFA Europa League when they defeated AEL of Cyprus (2-0, 1-1) in the second qualifying round, but were eliminated in next round by Swiss club, Basel (2-2, 1-3).
In 2011-12 UEFA Europa League, Reykjavik FC eliminated IF Fuglafjorour in the first qualifying round and achieved a big win against MSK Zilina in the next round (3-0) in Reykjavik and though losing 2-0 in Zilina, advanced through to the next round where they lost to Dinamo Tbilisi (1–6 on aggregate).
City of Reykjavik
Ascent Soccer, Malawi’s only full time residential football academy program, highlights that since 2018 they have produced over 30 youth and senior internationals, has 7 graduates playing in Malawi’s top professional league and 8 graduates on athlete scholarships in the USA and Canada.
Last summer, Ascent Soccer Under-16 went unbeaten and lifted the Rey Cup in Iceland, topping English League 1 academy, Fleetwood Town 3-0 in the process.
Female players Rose Kadzere and Letica Chinyaluma, who were part of the Malawi Scorchers triumphant squad of the Confederation of Southern African Football Association (COSAFA) Women’s Championship 2023, have been nominated for the inaugural regional COSAFA Awards in Women’s Promising Player of the Year.
The two have been nominated alongside Zambian Esther Banda based on their performances both at national and club level in the year 2023.
Kadzere and Chinyaluma are part of Ascent U-20 female side preparing for their FAM National Championship campaign, hoping to go one better — having lost on penalties in the final a year ago.
The unprecedented achievements of Ascent Soccer are not going unnoticed as prior to the 4-Nations Tournament, Football Association of Malawi (FAM) president Fleetwood Haiya paid a courtesy call to academy to appreciate its efforts, which is the only full-time football academy that also has a scholarship program in the country.
A report on Fam.mw said Haiya applauded Ascent Soccer for facilitating the move of a number of players abroad, which will be key to transforming the game’s player export strategy.
Haiya on his visit to Ascent Soccer
“As a country, we don’t have big football stars in big leagues of Europe, America and the Middle East,” he is quoted as saying. “This is due to the unviability of a systematic plan to export our best talents for development in the world’s best leagues.
“One way of realising that is to nurture and export talent via scholarships through academies and high schools. Ascent is doing that and we need to work with them so that we increase the number of players abroad and this is why I am here to appreciate these wonderful efforts.
“As FAM, we have developed guidelines for regulating academies and have embarked on an exercise to register and license all academies in the country.
“We will support the academies to ensure we have structured player development platforms and defined systematic pathways,” reports Fam.mw.
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