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Young footballers hope to impress clubs at trials
- Published: July 29, 2019
The youngsters hope to convince a club to take a chance on them after displaying their skills at a recruitment camp.
A group of young footballers from nations such as Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco, Kuwait and Iraq gathered on Saturday at a camp in the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya, with dreams of playing for teams in Europe.
The young players, aged between 16 and 19, were handpicked from football academies in their native countries. All of them hope to be selected by the youth teams of Turkish professional football clubs after scrimmages and training sessions.
Mehmet Ali Gurboga, the head of an agency involved with the recruitment of players, said Turkey’s football industry has great potential.
“We have hosted many football teams over the years,” he said. “Foreign teams love Turkey and Antalya a lot,” he said, adding that apart from being known for its tourism sector, Antalya is also a city of football. While the players show off their skills and talents, Turkish clubs may sign these athletes for very cheap, he said.
Mustafa Orebe, an official from Iraq’s Algania Football Academy, said their players joined the camps to move to Turkey with hopes of making it to Europe. He added that an Iraqi player, who had earlier signed a contract with a local Turkish team, currently plays for Italy’s Udinese.
Muhammad Rosdy, the owner of Abro Football Academy which operates in Egypt and Kuwait, said the goal of joining the camp was to make the players play football in the youth teams of professional clubs like Antalyaspor and Alanyaspor.
“We want to discover more players like Mohammed Salah and send them to Europe,” he said, referring to the famous Egyptian professional footballer who now plays for Liverpool.
Ilyas Canim, 17, from Iraq, said he played in the 13 to 14-year-old age category in Germany, and 15 to 16-year-old age category in Galatasaray’s youth team. He said his aim was to be transferred to major European teams.
Ahmed Osman, 16, another participant from Egypt, said he preferred to join the camp in Antalya because the football industry was weak in his country.
“I would like to show my skills here and then go to Europe after playing for clubs like Antalyaspor and Alanyaspor,” Osman said, expressing dreams of being like Lionel Messi in the future.
Source: DailySabah, AA
