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Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
BULAWAYO-based Las Palmas Soccer Academy has sent nine players for a week-long camp that starts today at Belgravia Sports Club in Harare.

United Kingdom’s Football CV Academy coach Grant Brown is set to conduct a training course for budding players and development coaches.

More than 120 junior players from around the country will undergo the training course and two players will be selected for a training camp at FCV in August.

Las Palmas is an academy founded in 2015 with the aim of nurturing up-and-coming soccer players.

“We are happy to be sending our boys to a soccer camp in Harare. The camp will provide the boys with an opportunity to be selected for trials in the United Kingdom. This clinic is one of the many opportunities the boys will be exposed to. It is our goal to create a platform for these boys to showcase their talents,” said Las Palmas director Marvellous Bonasi.

The boys set to attend the trials are Simphiwe Mtetwa, Tapiwa Chatsama, Themba Mlilo, Stephen Sibanda, Themba Pumani, Mayibongwe Sibanda, Methembe Ngwenya, Phanankosi Ncube and Tyrese Swazi.

According to the FCV website, Brown, a holder of a Uefa A Licence, was a central defender during his playing days in a career that spanned 18 years.

“After starting out at Leicester City where he played 14 times, he moved to Lincoln City, going on to make more than 400 appearances during a 13-year spell.

“After stints at Telford United and Alfreton Town, the Sunderland-born Brown joined Grantham Town, which he balanced alongside a Youth Team coaching role at Lincoln,” reads his short bio on website.

Brown hung up his boots in 2006 to focus on his coaching career.