Saint Lucia Boys Raise The Bar At DIGICEL Kickstart Clinic

Aspiring footballers continue to raise the bar at the Digicel Kickstart Clinic with their movement on and off the ball, precision passing and clinical finishing in front of the goal – leaving the Manchester City FC coaches and West Indies T20 Captain, Darren Sammy, pleased with their performance. Project Manager for City Football Schools and lead coach for the Digicel Kickstart Clinic, Alan Dixon, said, “The players demonstrated a willing and positive attitude throughout the clinic. They applied themselves well during the practices and showed a desire to improve. They embraced the challenges and their individual creativity shone through.”

West Indies T20 team captain and Digicel Brand Ambassador Darren Sammy visited the boys during their training session and was pleasantly surprised with the footballing talent in Saint Lucia. He said,“I am truly impressed with what I am seeing. The boys applied themselves as they should, listened keenly to the coaches and showed what they have learnt on the field.

“Digicel continues to amaze me with what they are doing in the community. This partnership between Digicel and Manchester City FC is developing young footballing talents and is clearly making a difference in this region. Being a member of the West Indies team, I know first-hand the difference Digicel is making in this region and I applaud them.” Digicel is a proud sponsor of West Indies cricket which created history by winning the ICC World T20 titles with its Under 19s, men’s and women’s teams.

At the end of the two-day clinic, the top three players were selected to represent Saint Lucia in May at the City Football Academy in Manchester. These players are Jervel Tobierre, Romario Lendor and Tyrone WInter.

The Digicel Kickstart Clinic programme is a once in a lifetime opportunity for thousands of aspiring young footballers. Through the Kickstart Clinics, participants not only learn football skills and technical abilities, but also develop an ethos of professionalism and a good attitude – key attributes of successful people across all walks of life.

Digicel is the lead sponsor of Caribbean, Central American and Pacific sports teams, including the Special Olympics teams throughout these regions. Digicel sponsors the West Indies cricket team and is also the title sponsor of the Caribbean Premier League. In the Pacific, Digicel is the proud sponsor of several national rugby teams and also sponsors the Vanuatu cricket team.

Digicel runs a host of community-based initiatives across its markets and has set up Digicel Foundations in Haiti, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea and Trinidad and Tobago which focus on educational, cultural and social development programmes.

Manchester City FC is an English Premier League club whose roots began in East Manchester in 1880 as St Mark’s West Gorton. It officially became Manchester City FC in 1894 and went on to win the European Cup Winners’ Cup, four League Championship titles, including two Premier League titles in the last three years (2012, 2014), and five FA Cups. Manchester City FC is one of four teams comprising the City Football Group, 13% of which is owned by a Chinese Media Capital-led consortium, and counts New York City FC, Melbourne City FC and Yokohama F-Marinos among its sister clubs.

Under manager Manuel Pellegrini, the Club plays its domestic and Champions’ League home fixtures at the Etihad Stadium, a spectacular 55,000 seat arena that City has called home since 2003. Today, the stadium sits on the wider Etihad Campus which also encompasses the City Football Academy, a world leading first team training and youth development facility located in East Manchester. Featuring a 7,000 capacity Academy Stadium, the City Football Academy is also where Manchester City Women’s Football Club and the Elite Development Squad train on a daily basis and play their competitive home games.