Advertisement

Laryea Kingston (holding microphone) and Tullow MD, Mr Awotwi addressing the students.
Laryea Kingston (holding microphone) and Tullow MD, Mr Awotwi addressing the students.

Laryea Kingston lauds Right to Dream Academy

Former Ghana international Laryea Kingston has commended the Right to Dream (RtD) academy for implementing a programme which places equal emphasis on sporting as well as the personal development of footballers in the country.

According to Kingston, who garnered 41 international caps for the senior national team, he would have been a much better footballer and achieved more laurels if he had benefited from RtD's Cambridge accredited schooling and their tailored character development programme as a youngster.

Laryea and the Managing Director of Tullow Ghana, Kweku Awotwi were given a tour of the RtD facility based in Old Akrade in the Eastern Region on Wednesday and the pair were full of praise for the facilities on the RtD campus, current students as well as alumni including Abdul Majeed Waris, David Accam and King Osei Gyan.

The pair toured the campus of RtD which has eight grass pitches, dormitories, gymnasium, a LEGO Innovation Studio and were briefed by many administrators including former alumni King Osei Gyan about the educational programme which focuses on Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM).

In an interactive session with the inmates after the tour, Laryea and Awotwi advised the inmates to seize the golden opportunity that RtD has presented them to achieve their goals.

"Being at Right to Dream means if you can't make it in football, you will have something else to do, even after football when you retire you will still have your certificate and use it to get a job. The lifespan of football is very short," Laryea said.

Laryea who owns Division Two side Kingstep FC advised that Ghanaian clubs with the resources must adopt the RtD model to help bridge the gap between Ghanaian footballers and their counterparts in Europe.

"When you go to Europe, all these big teams have such academies no only for football but for academics. When I went to Venezia in Italy for trials as a 16-year-old, it was same; academics and football," he said.

Signalling, Tullow's commitment to the facility, Mr Awotwi disclosed that his outfit as sponsors of the academy had begun offering internships to the youngsters at the academy.

He said: "What we are doing now at Tullow is that we are working with them to bring some of the young people as interns into the company so that they also get some work experience as part of their development".

Tullow in 2017, signed a two-year partnership with RtD to provide funds for the school to continue to enhance its delivery of STEM subjects with a particular focus on programming and robotics.

Connect With Us : 0242202447 | 0551484843 | 0266361755 | 059 199 7513 |