City welcome players from Craig Bellamy Foundation

Last updated : 02 August 2011 By Michael Morris

They are from the Craig Bellamy Foundation, set up in the African country by the man himself.

The allafrica website reports:

bellamy_foundation2The three players - Mustapha Bundu, Santigie Koroma and Sulaiman Samura - are all members of the Academy's 1st generation, and will represent the first set of boys from CBF to be given such an opportunity to spend time with a foreign football club as they look to continue their development.

According to the Academy head coach, Johnny McKinstry, they are excited to offer the boys such opportunity.

"We are very excited to offer these boys the opportunity to test themselves against top level players in the UK," he enthused. "We have been working hard to secure the best opportunities for all the students registered at the CBF Academy, and this represents the first step in relation to international training placements, of which we hope there will be many more in the coming years."

bellamy_foundation1Expanding on what the boys can expect from their time with Cardiff City, Coach McKinstry said: "The three boys will train with Cardiff City's under 15 and under 16 academy teams during their six-week stay with the club. They will also get the opportunity to play in several of the academy's fixtures during that period, where they will compete against other Championship and Premier League academies."

Obviously excited about the news that he will soon be travelling to the UK to play with Cardiff City, Santigie Koroma - one of the lucky players - said he we was very happy for the news, adding that it will be the first time he would be playing in an European soil.

"We are very excited to be travelling to play with Cardiff City for 6
weeks," he said. "This will be our first time playing in a European country, and we are looking forward to learning a lot of things, and improving ourselves while we are there."

This news should also come as a boost to the SLFA, and those who will be charged with guiding the Sierra Stars U17 team in their qualifying games in 2012. All three boys travelling to Cardiff are eligible to represent Sierra Leone at the CAF U17 Championship to be held in Morocco in 2013.

http://www.craigbellamyfoundation.org/