After 4 consecutive successful seasons from 2017 – 2019 with the mission of “connecting prosperity, empowering dreams”, Saigon – Hanoi Bank (SHB) and Manchester City Football Club (MCFC) continue to implement the Young Leader training program for the youth community in SOS children’s villages in the Central region from Jan 8 to Jan 11, 2020.
Aiming at inspiring young football leaders around the world, Young Leader 2020 will select 40 students aging from 15 – 17, who love football from SOS children’s villages in Danang, Hue, Dong Hoi, Quy Nhon and Pleiku. Students will be participating in a centralized training course directly taught by MCFC coaches for 4 days, from Jan 8 to Jan 11, 2020 in Danang SOS Children’s Village.
The program will help children develop leadership and life skills, as well as practical planning skill and know how to use football as a useful tool to bring positive thoughts and motives for themselves and the society.
Mr. Tom Pitchon, Director of City Football Group Foundation said: “Manchester City’s commitment to the community has been made since the establishment of the Club over 130 years ago. After 4 sucessful years in Hanoi, we are proud to be rolling out the Young Leader training program in Da Nang for the first time, to help enhance skills for young students who are playing football to bring social benefits. This project is generating unique values to the local community and we want to equip these young leaders with leadership, confidence and football coaching skills to bring a practical influence to their community.”
One of the differences of Young Leader compared to other football training programs is the diversity in the form of teaching, ranging from direct training, distance training to online support. In addition to lectures and practical lessons on the football field, students also have access to MCFC’s electronic libraries worldwide, where they can easily connect with other students from other countries to exchange opinions and experience and improve their skills, as well as prepare for periodical checks. Furthermore, the program will continue to spread to other local SOS villages, where each of trained student is an ambassador to bring and share knowledge from their experience to other friends in the villages.
“Not only lighting and uncovering hidden talents, Young Leader is also an effective tool to connect young people around the world through diverse and advanced teaching methods from Manchester City Club. Hopefully, the program will empower young dreams, develop passions, so that in the future, they will be the ones who spread the fire, desire, pass on the enthusiasm to their friends in their villages, to overcome difficult situations and excel in their life. Thereby, they will all together create beautiful values for the community.”– Mr. Nguyen Van Le – General Director of SHB shared.
In addition, within the context of the program and continuing the success of 2019 season, the Young Leader Football Festival among SOS children’s villages is planned to be held this May in Da Nang. This is a great opportunity for students to utilize knowledge and skills which they have learnt to express themselves and inspire other 200 students from 5 children’s villages in the Central region.
After 4 seasons in Vietnam, MCFC has trained 160 students, among which, in 2018, 5 best students have had the opportunity to travel to the UK to attend the Global Young Leadership Summit (Cityzens Giving Young Leaders Summit) together with more than 60 students from 18 other cities around the world.
MCFC is one of the major football brands of the English Premier League with tens of millions of fans around the globe. Besides football exchange activities, MCFC and SHB have had a long cooperation in the field of issuing co-branded cards, namely: international debit card “ManCity – SHB Visa Debit”, international credit card SHB – ManCity Visa Cashback with images of football stars on the cards, easy to use anytime, anywhere on around the world with outstanding utilities.