BY MUNYARADZI MADZOKERE
ACES Youth Soccer Academy (AYSA) will be reflecting on some of its notable achievements as they celebrate 20 years of football and academic excellence.
The celebrated junior football academy was established on February 7, 2001 by veteran Swiss coach Marc Duvillard and football administrator Nigel Munyati, who is also a board member of the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC).
It has easily grown to easily one of the biggest soccer academies in the country and the region.
As it celebrates two decades existence the club will reminisce on its highs and lows since its formation.
“AYSA will over the next few months reminisce about the past two decades. This still on-going ‘match’ in the game of life has seen the Academy ‘score’ unforgettable goals, swerve past career ending tackles and even fight back from inevitable ‘injuries’,” the academy said in a statement.
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“The Academy has touched and transformed lives that go beyond the AYSA graduates, who have gone on to achieve excellence in the cut throat world of professional sports.
“AYSA counts among its alumni, sporting household names like Knowledge Musona, Khama Billiat, Abbas Amidu, Merjury Nyaumwe, Sheila Makoto, Kudzai Chiparausha as well as Brian Dzingai among a host of other top-notch athletes,” said the academy.
Initially the project to help disadvantaged children in the community and introduce the concept of sport as a social intervention tool before it became a football project.
Other players to emerge from the institution include George Chigova, Donovan Benard, Eric Chipeta, Silas Songani and Kudzai Chiparausha among many others.
Four players in Mighty Warriors squad that represented the country at Rio Olympics including Nyaumwe, Makoto, Rufaro Machingura and Eunice Chibanda were nurtured by the academy.