Zed FC Youth Academy Wins Best Youth Academy in Africa Award

ZED FC Youth Academy has been awarded the Best Youth Academy in Africa at the Dubai Globe Soccer becoming the first private sports sector in Egypt to win this award. The announcement came during a ceremony held today, Monday, at Armani Hotel in Burj Khalifa, with the participation of a group of international football stars. Onsi Sawiris, Chairman of ZED for Sports Investment, received the Best Youth Academy in Africa Award.

This award comes as a recognition of ZED for Sports Investment's strategy that aims to create the strongest youth sector by discovering new talents from all over Egypt, signing partnerships with major European clubs such as the German football club, Borussia Dortmund, and providing professional training opportunities and the latest global training techniques. With this approach, ZED aims to give youth the opportunity to develop their skills and compete internationally, in line with Egypt’s strategic vision 2030.

The Globe Soccer Awards, held this year as part of Expo 2020 Dubai activities, to recognize distinguished figures in 14 different football categories including male and female players and coaches. It is an annual ceremony that has been held since 2010. It started with four award categories and began to expand to reach 14 categories aiming at recognizing not just the best players and coaches, but also the people who work behind the scenes in the football industry who have not previously been acknowledged. Many international football stars have received these awards in past rounds, such as football star "Cristiano Ronaldo" who won the best player award several times, the last of which was in 2019, football legend "Lionel Messi" who received the same award in 2015, and coach José Mourinho who was named the best coach in 2012.

The Best Youth Academy in Africa Award crowns the vision of ZED for Sports Investment in Egypt through the establishment of the latest infrastructure of equipped stadiums with the highest standards in addition to providing the latest training methods, and an integrated sports institution that includes the educational aspect in order to prepare a generation of qualified sports cadres technically and practically.

The ceremony was attended by a high-level delegation from ZED for Sports Investment headed by Onsi Sawiris, Chairman; Haitham Abdel Azim, Vice President; Seif Zaher CEO; and members of the Board of Directors including Hassan Abdo, Amr Taher, in addition to technical board members represented by Ahmed Hassan, Hazem Imam, Emad Meteb and Ahmed Hossam (Mido).

Onsi Sawiris, Chairman of ZED for Sports Investment, commented on this significant award saying: “We are pleased to receive the first international award after the establishment of ZED for Sports Investment a few years ago. We were keen on developing a strategy aiming to prepare a distinguished youth sector with a professional mentality through the establishment of an integrated sports system that includes stadiums and professional coaches, with the participation of major European clubs.”

Moreover, Haitham Abdel Azim, Vice Chairman of ZED for Sports Investment, said that ZED FC Youth Academy has pumped huge investments to build stadiums with international levels to allow many talents to develop their skills and increase the number of sports practitioners and utilize the latest technologies to develop the skills of players.

From his side, Seif Zaher, CEO of ZED for Sports Investment, said “Having ZED FC Youth Academy winning the Best Youth Academy in Africa award from the Globe Soccer Awards, represents a challenge for ZED to keep this unique level and prepare the best youth base with a professional mentality, compete in local and international tournaments, and graduate talents ready to play in the largest international leagues.”

It is worth mentioning that ZED FC Youth Academy won the award after a competition with major sports clubs. This is basically driven by the club’s continuous efforts to increase the number of junior and youth teams to 12 which resulted in a 350% increase in experimental participation rates within a short period of time. This led to an increase in the number of players by 640%. Ten players were called up for the Egyptian team and 12 junior players were promoted to the first team to compete in the promotion competitions for the Premier League, in addition to a women’s football academy that was launched a few months ago.