Andre Virtue, technical director of the Scotiabank Valencia Next Generation Football Camp, is aiming for a September start of a local academy to hone the skills of youngsters.

Virtue said negotiations are ongoing with stakeholders, but he is positive that the dream will become a reality.

“We are targetting September and we are working hard to make that happen. I do believe it will happen this year and we are working feverishly towards it.

“The fire is hot right now, Valencia is willing to send the coach and Scotiabank is ready, but we need a lot more because it’s a very huge undertaking.

“Right now there are no specifics of the location. We have to go and finalise with the stakeholders because this has been a rough financial year,” he said at Monday’s Next Generation Football Camp awards ceremony at Sabina Park where 29 young footballers were identified as candidates for the academy.

The Next Generation Camp, facilitated through the Spanish-Jamaican Foundation along with Valencia CF, is endorsed by the Jamaica Football Federation.

The technical director explained that under the programme, the invited coach from the Spanish Club would reside in the country for a year to scout and ultimately develop young talent.

“The coach would go the length and breadth of the island looking at our football, see the faults, the challenges, the weaknesses and the strengths. The age group we would be looking at is from seven to 14 years old. They would be training on the weekends and we would want to be taking these guys to play tournaments across the Caribbean and to North America,” Virtue added.

Simone Walker, director of marketing programmes at Scotiabank, said the partnership with the “high quality” Next Generation Camp is “an investment in the youth’s future”.

Marketing co-ordinator of Gatorade Cornelia Nathan spoke of the importance of having the rehydration drink onboard “to give the kids that drive to go and do their best”.

In the past, the Next Generation programme has seen at least one graduate earning the honour of being placed in the Valencia CF academy setup.

Virtue said that was not a long-term arrangement.

“Having selected a kid every year to go to that camp was what we had committed to at first. We looked at the best strategy to continue this and obviously sending one kid every six months or every year was not sustainable. To have our programme here is the way forward,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

A total of 86 youngsters participated in the Camp’s 12 to 16-year-old category this year, while 66 participants featured in the seven to 11 age group.

Hillel’s Zachary Duncan, Mona Prep’s Duncan McKenzie, Liberty Prep’s Luke Clarke, Munro College-bound Keith Murray, Jamaica College’s Demario Phillips and Texas-based Ricardo Pena were awarded with $20,000 cheques for being top performers.

Florida-located female camper Morgan Robertson was also noted for one with plenty of potential.

Other sponsors of this season’s camp include Jamaica Producers, KFC and Pizza Hut.

The head coach was Spain-based Jaoa Teixeira and local assistance came from persons who have represented Jamaica at various levels such as Ricardo Gardner, Paul Young, Donald Stewart and Leon Gordon.

Youngsters and officials of the Scotiabank Valencia Next Generation Football Camp pose after Monday’s award ceremony at Sabina Park. (PHOTO: COLLIN REID)