Super Pro Launches Academy for Soccer and Education

It is widely known here that most soccer players in Liberia do not attach seriousness to education so at the end of their football career, many of them leave the pitch without archiving much in terms of improved standard of life.

However, a local group Super Professional Foundation (SPF) has announced that its primary aim is to form a connection which has been lacking between education and soccer in Liberia. The Foundation was launched recently at the Lott Carey Baptism Mission in Brewersville Township, outside Monrovia.

The chairman of the board of directors of the Super Professional Foundation Francis Dopoh, noted that many Liberian players eventually face difficulty in life, due to their inability to attain education while at the peak of their career.

“We are all aware of the story of footballers after their career; football is the shortest career, so what happens after the age 30, which is the normal benchmark for professional players nowadays; they go out with nothing, but we have come to change that,” he promised.

“We have a five-year plan and in this plan, education is a keen interest; we want to encourage the kids that they can be footballers and still become doctors, engineers, or lawyers, and this can only be realized through education.”

“This is the foundation that Liberia has been lacking over the years and we at Super Professional Foundation are eager to change that,” Dopoh pointed out.

He said the five-year plan include taking players to Europe and other countries for exposure, and the Foundation eventually hopes to attain full academy status at the end of the period.

The Foundation has already recruited about 100 kids between ages 6 and 12 into the academy.  The kids will form part of the Foundation’s four in-house training teams: Cables, Transporters, Bankers and Petroleum Stars.

Speaking during the official launch, the chairperson of the Board of Commissioners of the Liberia Telecommunication Authority (LTA) Madam Angela Weeks, cautioned the kids to put discipline at the top of their careers, stressing that no professional person achieves success in the absence of discipline.

She pledged to give US$10.00 to any of the kids, who will accumulate the highest grade point in their academy studies periodically.