Youth Academy

Our Vision for the Meheret FC Youth Academy

Short-Term Goals: 2020-2022

  • We will launch our youth academy from the u8-u17 age groups. This will be the lifeblood of the club. We will promote talent from within. Our aim will be (wherever appropriate) to have our players, or even entire teams, playing up an age group. They will be challenged against quicker, more advanced, and more physical styles of play. The players will be poured into during their time with Meheret, in order to develop their entire person. We will identify players who have high talent ceilings & will especially have a heart for those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

  • Meheret will step into the stress point of whatever a family’s budget is & provide a monthly stipend for them in the form of groceries, tuition payments, etc as a thank you for allowing us to pour into and develop their children.

  • For children who are of the street & without family we will integrate them into the care of Mercy Branch, our NGO partner. Mercy Branch (mercybranch.org) will provide for them holistically just as they do with the children currently in their care.

  • Meheret will help to cover the cost of their involvement with the NGO, getting these children off the streets, into a loving environment, enrolled in school, and eating nutritious meals. This will be a large undertaking but one that Meheret is committed to in an effort to help change lives for the better & develop future leaders of Ethiopia.

  • The youth academy will further extend the reach of Meheret. We will aim to have roughly 20 players per age group in these first couple of years. This should allow us to touch 120 players, plus staff. Overall, this will take the club reach to around the 180 to 200- person mark. Additionally, we will have tutors and nutritionists on staff that can aide in each individual’s development.

Mid-Range Goals: 2023-2025

  • By this time we will start to introduce a girls side to the academy. We want to be a leader in that space as well. This will again extend our reach, but will also increase cost as it will be the same format as the boys. Once fully operational, our club will directly impact around 360-400 people who are players/ staff.

  • Certain age groups will travel to European tournaments to be tested at higher standards. This will show the kids that even if we are the best in Addis, there is a greater measure that is possible to achieve. These experiences encourage ambition amongst our teams & help to build our reputation.

Long-Term Goals: 2026-2029

  • Continue to take teams to tournaments abroad such as the Brondby cup, Gothia cup, Football Cup Barcelona, Komm Mit international- Croatia, etc.

  • Utilize our facility to have B-teams for certain age groups as we will have a no cut policy under age 13. However, the a max roster size is 45 kids per age, which we intend to grow beyond.

  • The youth academy would be involved in outreach that takes soccer to where other kids are. By hiring and training additional coaches we can provide them with a coaching kit to go run soccer programming right in kids’ neighborhoods so that they don’t have to travel to us.

  • Acquire vans facilitating pick-up / drop-off of academy kids rather than paying for taxis each day.