Olé Football Academy’s collaboration with National Youth League franchise Team Wellington is set to continue through the 2017 / 2018 summer after the duo enjoyed success last season, achieving a top 4 finish.
“The board and professional staff at Team Wellington were fantastic to work with in 2016 and the Olé Football Academy could not be more pleased to continue our partnership with Team Wellington into 2017. Access to the National Youth League competition has proven to be a great opportunity allowing the young player at Olé Football Academy to play, compete and be observed at the country’s highest level of youth football. The ongoing partnership with Team Wellington Youth adds yet another dimension to the development pathway for our players. We are proud to represent an organisation in Team Wellington with such a tradition of excellence. The players and staff at Olé wish the Team Wellington 1st Team the best of luck as they compete for the Stirling Sports Championship.” Ben Sippola CEO Olé Football Academy, Head Coach Team Wellington Youth
The National Youth League, which features the talents of the country’s brightest up-and-coming footballers, includes the same clubs as the senior Stirling Sports Premiership, where each franchise meet once in a nine-round season – there are no playoffs at the end of the round-robin – before a winner is crowned.
The National Youth League serves as the development pathway towards the Stirling Sports Premiership for New Zealand’s finest emerging talent with a host of players making the transition into the top domestic competition in recent times, including the likes of All Whites Clayton Lewis, Moses Dyer, Oliver Sail and Sam Brotherton.
New Zealand Football Head of National Competitions Daniel Farrow says the National Youth League forms a key role in the development of the nation’s best players towards the highest level of the game, as well as providing the opportunity to fight for local pride.
“This competition is hugely important in giving young footballers all over New Zealand the chance to compete against their peers and battle for a national title.
“Over the last few years, the National Youth League has also provided a strong proving ground for our best young players as they look to progress towards the Stirling Sports Premiership and beyond. We are looking forward to seeing the next crop of talented young players step forward over the next few months.”
One such success story is striker Myer Bevan, who came to attention when starring for Auckland City in last season’s campaign and is now based in England with the Nike Academy, a full-time training programme that seeks to produce players for professional clubs. At the OFC U-20 Championship in September, Bevan picked up both the Golden Boot as top scorer and the Golden Ball for being singled out as the tournament’s best player.
There are likely to be plenty of others who follow in the footsteps of Lewis, Dyer, Bevan and co from the current crop of National Youth League talent.
A handful of players joined Bevan in starring at the recent OFC U-20 Championship in Vanuatu with several of these in the Waitakere United ranks, namely Reese Cox, Charlie Thomas and George Debenham. Others to have represented their country include Auckland City goalkeeper Cameron Brown, Team Wellington defender Nando Pijnaker and Eastern Suburbs striker Lucas Imrie, as well as Wellington Phoenix duo Joe Bell and Sarpreet Singh.
There are also some notable names among the coaching staff of each team with former All White trio Declan Edge (Team Wellington), Chad Coombes (Waitakere) and Graham Marshall (Southern United) responsible for developing the next batch of footballers in their respective roles.
Credit NZ Football for article information.
