Four years after laying the first stone of the Diambars Football Academy in Senegal, Patrick Vieira, Jimmy Adjovi-Boco and Bernard Lama will return to the Academy this month and will announce new projects in partnership with both UNESCO and FIFA as well as partners from the private sector.
In addition, the football heroes will launch two new projects: the creation of a second Diambars Football Academy in South Africa, and the online competition "Keep the Ball Moving," aimed at youngsters from all over the world.
"Bernard, Jimmy and I laid the first stone of the Diambars Football Academy in Saly exactly four years ago," Patrick Vieira said. "Now we are going back to celebrate with our students and partners the enormous progress this project has made," he said.
Diambars is a non-governmental organisation, founded by Patrick Vieira, Bernard Lama, Saer Seck and Jimmy Adjovi-Boco in 2003. Several other football heroes have given their support to the NGO, including Alliou Cisse, Ferdinand Coly, Marcel Desailly, William Gallas, Thierry Henry, Claude Makelele, Robert Pires, Mickael Sylvestre, Lilian Thuram and Zinedine Zidane.
"Giving back to football what it has given us," was the idea behind the dream and the creation of Diambars. The pilot project in Senegal was developed to help underprivileged children between the ages of 13 and 18, all of whom have a talent for playing football.
"Over a period of five years, the Diambars Academy provides them with housing, education and training. The goal is to help children build up their physical capacities, acquire schooling in different disciplines and develop new skills.
"Beyond the purely sporting dimension, we encourage the overall development of the students from Diambars by providing them with athletic, academic and professional training", says Bernard Lama.
A second Diambars Football Academy should be operational in South Africa by 2010, before the next FIFA World Cup kicks off.
