Yaounde, Cameroon played host to the Rainbow Sports combine on November 3rd – 4th 2017, as part of a revolutionary approach to develop the future of African football.
The organisation at Rainbow Sports is now operating across 9 African countries in a movement to nurture and develop African talents through to the top of the world game, but crucially ensuring focus is being made on building the person before the player.
The combine in Yaounde was held at the Stade Militaire and head scouts from the USA and Europe attended to watch the most promising 66 young players from all corners of Cameroon over two days. Training sessions and a game by Cameroon's locally-based National Team, coached by Rigobert Song, were also watched.
The most recent success story of the network and system put in place by Rainbow Sports is the story of Christian Bassogog, who in just 3 years has progressed his career across 4 continents and become one of Africa’s most exciting footballers today.
‘The ambition we have is to reach out into streets of Africa and uncover many more talents like Christian. We know they are there and have spent many years now developing our system to support a new future for African football’ explains Rainbow Sports CEO Kingsley Pungong.
Kingsley goes on to say ‘in almost every published article about the greatest footballers in the game right now, over 50% of the names are of African descent. It is common knowledge that the continent breeds strong footballing talent, but prior to now, it has been done without too much infrastructure in the continent itself. We want to change the face of African football for the better and ensure the continent benefits from the beautiful game too’.
The programme is not just about placing talented footballers in clubs around the globe. Rainbow Sports have invested years of time and energy into developing the person as well as the player. A TV documentary series has captured this process including the combine this weekend and will be published in 2018.
Scouts, agents and coaches from the MLS, USL, La Liga and the English Premier League were hosted in Yaounde this November and it will be repeated annually with the Rainbow Sports education programme running all year round for those players who show the right attitude and talent.
The tour for 2017-2018 recruitment will now go on to visit Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, Cote D’Ivoire, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Ghana, DR Congo and Rwanda.
For more information please visit www.rainbow-sports.com and follow on Instagram @rainbow.sports.