Football Association of Malawi (FAM) president Walter Nyamilandu early this month officially launch a youth football academy at Mpira Village, which will be administered by Walter Nyamilandu Foundation.
The Walter Nyamilandu Football Academy will be operating at Country Club, Limbe in Blantyre and targets Under-15 youths.
According to Nyamilandu, the Foundation realizes the power that the game of football possesses in building strong personalities and characters among the youth and it is against this background that the Walter Nyamilandu Foundation has put football development at grassroots level as a key strategic engagement area in its operations.
The Academy will be very unique and will be driven by three pillars: ‘Total Football Development’, which will be through structured coaching and training methods and ‘Education Centric’ since the academy students will be enrolled in vocational training sessions to equip them with other life skills.
There is the pillar on ‘Spiritual Growth’ since the academy recognizes that football and life are God-given gifts to man-kind to glorify his creation. We want the academy kids to have discipline.
A total of 25 players have been identified and enrolled at the academy after a rigorous process which involved a tournament played in Blantyre in the month of August 2019.
In an interview, Nyamilandu said what inspired him to initiate this academy was first and foremost his desire of giving back to society he has served for many years.
He said The Walter Nyamilandu Foundation’s core activities are to empower people through charitable activities like donating to the needy, hospitals and empowering others with life skills and vocational training in areas of education.
“So the academy is part of the Foundation’s activities of empowering the young with football skills, vocational training and spiritual growth.
“For now, I am funding the academy and it will first be on a none residential set up. That said, we are already in the process of engaging partners to come in and help in providing resourses.
“So we will make announcements on the status of the partners when time is right.”
He said the academy will administered by the Foundation and the youth players will be trained by Chancy Msema as head coach with former international Joseph Kamwendo and Dan Chemisi as assistant coaches.
“The academy is also going to open oppurtunitie for the young players to go overseas and play professional football. We have international partners who are seasoned and well established in finding contracts for players overseas.
“At the launch we are going to disclose the partners. We want to open up channels for the boys have a chance to play professional football in the best league’s in the world.”
The Academy launch’s activities at Chiwembe Stadium on Saturday from 10am, will include an exhibition match between the Walter Nyamilandu Academy and Play Football Academy from Lilongwe.
Last year, FAM announced established a youth academy targeting schools surrounding Mpira Village to develop the game from grassroots level, which is the nursery for the future of the game.
In its Activity Report for the period from July 2017 to June 2018, said this pilot phase will run for one year in Blantyre and in later years, will escalate the model to rest of the country.
The report had said FAM’s emphasis on youth development is manifested by plans to establish academies in all the four cities in the country and at the time of reporting, trials to select were in progress.