Talented Tino takes on Europe
Future Lions International are delighted to announce the arrival of Zimbabwe teenage sensation and National team player Tino Benza.
The 18 year old striker / winger, who is the youngest player to score in the Zimbabwe premiership, who has scored for Zimbabwe u18 and was recently selected to represent the u23 young warriors for their Afcon fixture vs Mozambique, has decided to head to Future Lions instead of starting the league season back home as he feels he wants to explore the opportunities available to him in Europe. And what better place to go than Future Lions International Football academy who have now helped over 20 players with their football careers in the last year.
Tino had a brief spell at Future Lions pre season and scored 3 goals in 2 matches. He commented “It was a great experience... it was very technical; it’s different from Africa because you have to use more of your brains than your speed or anything. I’m going to be with Future Lions until I find a team. I have my visa now and I’m all ready to go!”.
Commenting on the U23 Zimbabwe call up Tino said “Its an amazing feeling, when I heard the news I was travelling, I wasn’t expecting it but it means a lot and gives me hope for the future”.
Tinos father, Innocent, who was still playing in the Zimbabwe premier league at 46 said of his sons departure to England that it’s a wonderful opportunity, we are a serious football family and with Tino being called into the u23 and was already captain on the u17 it shows he is a developing talent.”
At Future Lions we certainly believe He is a young boy with undoubted ability. At 14 he was already playing in division one but there was little press coverage. At 17 he was the youngest scorer in the premier league and at 18 he has already been called into the u23. We hope that we can play a pivotal role in whatever is next to come for Tino.
We are also delighted that of all the academies he chose ours and we believe that says a lot about what we are trying to achieve ourselves. Our ambitions not only match but exceed both Tino and his fathers. We are passionate about giving young international players realistic opportunities and we very hard on our recruitment and marketing. Players like Tino will hopefully go on to inspire another group of young players wanting similar opportunities and the stronger the players are that we recruit then the greater opposition we can play against during the academy programme and this shows our commitment to being the best option for all young footballers looking to progress in football in Europe, China and USA. We are also in a unique position to study Tino’s abilities closely with our gps tracking, heart rate monitoring and performance analysis tools which are similar to those used at premier league clubs. Not many other academies would offer this kind of support to young players.
For more information about Future Lions international football academy, for opportunities to progress you football career and to keep an eye on Tinos progress please be sure to follow us on Facebook.com/thefuturelions and visit our website www.future-lions.com