CAF, FIFA lay foundation with Talent Development Scheme
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is partnering with FIFA for the exchange of knowledge regarding talent development on the continent at the sidelines of the ongoing TotalEnergies U17 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Algeria.
Eight countries namely Côte d'Ivoire, Morocco, Cameroon, Zambia, Senegal, Ghana, South Africa and Algeria are participating in the workshop designed to invigorate talent development by the various federations in Africa.
The FIFA Talent Development Scheme forum started on Saturday 29 April and is expected to conclude on Friday, 5 May.
The four main topics being explored during the the seven-day event is management and resources, identifying talents, academies and education.
CAF’s delegation at the forum was led by Director of Development while FIFA High Performance Specialist, Abdul Faisal Chibsah, were among the facilitators of the workshop.
“CAF works in cooperation with FIFA, and this program is very important for African football. It will inevitably change the level of our clubs and even national teams, because everything depends on the elite elements for growth and development,” Chipenda said.
He added; “There will be an improvement in the level of each federation involved in this program and this will allow us to reach the levels that we want.”
Chipenda further opined that the continent is not deprived of talent and the program to nurture Member Associations on how to spot and nurture these players will be crucial in taking the African game to the next level.
The Talent Development Scheme aims to help federations exploit their capabilities in the best way possible, in discovering and developing talent and to help raise the level of men and women’s national teams.
FIFA has allocated $200million in funding to cover the costs of the Talent Development Scheme during its cycle from 2023 to 2026.
"It’s been a wonderful knowledge exchange event in Algiers and I’d like to first, thank the Algeria Football Federation for being a fantastic host," the FIFA High Performance Specialist, Abdul Faisal Chibsah, said.
"Our objective was to bring Member Associations together as one of the benefits of the Talent Development Scheme, to share their challenges and best practices so we can learn and grow together in Africa.
"This is the only way to gather knowledge and be in the best position within our environment to give every talented boy and girl a chance to develop and live his or her dreams."
Participating countries spoke of how vital the scheme is, saying it will go a long way in lifting the standards of national teams right from the youth to senior level.
“There has been a very good exchange of knowledge with different countries in the continent. We all had something to learn from Morocco’s performance at the World Cup where they reached the semi-final and the point they talked about a lot is investment in local coaches,” said Mustapha Biskri of Algeria.
We start working with players from a very early age. We have a high efficiency in discar
“There were important points touched on in the workshop including what is talent, how to identify the talent and where is it placed, who is assigned to follow it up and also the current state of youth tournaments.”
His sentiments were echoed by Senegal’s Technical Director Mayacine Mar who shared what his country has been doing it improve its football.
“We start working with players from a very early age. We have a high efficiency in discovering young talents. We initially invested in training scouts, and we also rely on many competitions at school level and if talent is discovered, it is transferred directly to one of the national training centres,” Mar explained.
Senegal have won four different major continental competitions with the 2021 AFCON, the Beach Soccer AFCON, the 2022 CHAN and the U20 AFCON recently in Egypt.
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