Chitungwiza-based football academy is dreaming of one day importing their talent to the big European leagues as they continue to impact the lives of budding soccer stars in the dormitory town.
Established in 2017, Sky Eagles already boasts of players with premiership experience while others are plying trade in the local Division One leagues.
But their biggest dream is to mould players that can excel in the top flight league as well as in top foreign competitions.
"The academy is producing high quality players some of them playing for local sides however of biggest dream as an institution is to produce for top European leagues as well as other recognised football leagues across the globe," one of the academy's founding director as as coach Michael Mashwinyi Mada told The Sports Hub.
"Players like Diverlash Nyamukondiwa competed in the league with Hwahwa FC back in 2022 while Phillip Kaseke has also played for football giants Dynamos. Jeffias Mandianga and Clarence Banda are playing for Chivhu United. Phillip Kaseke captains Kwekwe United. Some of our products are in Masvingo with Zaka Pirates," Mada added.
The project was founded by Mada and partner Ndaipa 'Zaza' Muchira to rescue young people from the Nyatsime community from the scourge of drug and substance abuse as well as criminal activities.
Keep Reading
- Over 115 to exhibit at Mine Entra
- Young entrepreneur dreams big
- Econet bemoans power outages
- Govt opens ChiTown e-passport centre
"It was in 2017 when Ndaipa Muchira and myself the founders and visionaries formed the academy called Sky Eagles. A lot of young people in the Nyatsime community in Chitungwiza had nothing to do during their spare time.
"They began to drink beer, smoking, abusing drugs and even stealing as well as other vices. That is when we thought of starting something to occupy much of their time thus we came up with a football academy," Mada revealed.
Mada and Muchira double up as the academy coaches while Johannes Sumburani is the secretary of the institution.
At the moment Sky Eagles have 15 boys on football scholarships,seven of them are at Mutero High School, and eight at Dewure High School.
"For us the academy is already a big success because of the positive impact that we have made in the community. At the moment we have no less than 93 kids as part of the project.
"We have under 10,14,16,18,21 and senior team which is currently competing in the Chitungwiza social league and doing quite well. Chitungwiza has a rich history of producing top football stars in the country and we want to play our part and create next generation of Zimbabwe football soccer stars," he said.
The project has received support from businessman Martin Sode and Mada appealed for more sponsors to come forward and support their good work.
"At the moment we don't have a permanent sponsor but there is a well wisher,owner of Spear Capital shops called Martin Sode who buys us 5 balls and other training equipment but it is not enough for 93 players. We are still looking for more sponsorship in order for us to achieve our set targets," Mada, who is affectionately referred to as Madex, said.
The team uses Takure Ground in Nyatsime for training.