Legends, Everton seal historic deal

Legends Football Academy were yesterday over the moon after sealing a historic partnership with English Premier League side Everton that is expected to open new career pathways for young Zimbabwean players.

Everton announced they had welcomed the academy as the newest member of its international academy affiliate programme.

The landmark deal will allow local young players access to the kind of quality training offered to their colleagues in England.

“Legends Football Academy, a leading football hub in Zimbabwe, is to join forces with Everton in an exciting new partnership.

“The Harare-based organisation becomes the newest addition to Everton’s International Academy Affiliate Programme (EIAAP), which aims to expand the knowledge and expertise of Everton’s player development processes to affiliated clubs at all tiers of the game across the world,’’ Everton said in a statement.

“This includes access to the finest coaching knowledge from Everton’s renowned Academy to support with player development and growth — a level of support that sets it apart from more traditional models.

“As a partner, Legends Football Academy will also have full access to the Everton Academy curriculum and monthly support from a dedicated Everton Academy coach, along with the offer of technical support from Everton’s Finch Farm training complex and business and marketing support from its Royal Liver Building business headquarters.

“The two clubs will also collaborate on coach development and education.”

Everton also expressed satisfaction after their assessment of the academy’s capacity to be taken on board their programme.

The confirmation of the deal left Legends Academy director Farai Dhliwayo ecstatic.

“We are extremely excited to be partnered with Everton Football Club. As you know, there is nothing bigger than the English Premiership, and working with a club that has developed players like Wayne Rooney, we can only learn from them,” he said.

“We have been working hard for the last eight years or so developing local players and we have had many successes in getting players into our local league and into regional leagues, but we decided about two years ago that we wanted to start on a path to figure out a path on how to start to get players to play in Europe.”

Their tour of the Cristiano Ronaldo Academy in Portugal in September last year, he said, was part of a grand scheme to try and open new pathways in Europe for the young players at their institution.

“If you have been following us, last year, we went on a tour of Portugal to the Cristiano Ronaldo Academy, because everything that we are trying to do, we are trying to learn from the best.

“That was an eye-opener and it started setting us the standards and allowing us to know what we need to do with the boys here, and soon after that, we started negotiations with Everton to try and see how we can get into partnership with them.”

Dhliwayo believes that the Toffees’ reputation as one of the most distinguished and storied clubs in English football will spur the players at Legends to try to scale greater heights.

As part of the deal, Everton International technical lead Paddy Byrne plans to make a future visit to Zimbabwe to assist in sharing the Everton Academy curriculum and implement methods used at Finch Farm to develop both player and coaching skills.

“I am excited to work alongside Farai and his team, and by sharing our values and coaching methods, we can build on the strong foundations of our affiliate programme and strengthen Everton’s bond in Africa,” said Byrne.

“I am sure this will prove a fruitful partnership for both clubs, and we can’t wait to get started.”

Everton’s International Academy Affiliate Club programme, which is available to grassroots teams, professional sides, youth academies, girls’ and women’s teams, as well as colleges and universities, was launched in 2020.

Legends become the second affiliate club in Africa following a partnership that Everton announced earlier last year with Ghana’s Ridge City Women, the first women’s club to join the programme.

The EIAAP programme also has affiliates in the US, Canada, Africa, South America, Australia and Ireland.

-SundayMail-