Grassroots Football, the first football academy in Afghan history, was opened in Kabul on Monday. The inauguration ceremony of the academy, which aims to give Afghan children greater access to training and promote professional football in Afghanistan, was attended by officials from the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).
The annoucement on Monday was the second historical milestone Afghan football has seen in the past couples weeks, with the Afghan National Team having defeated Pakistan 3-0 in the first international football match played between the two sides on Afghan soil in 37 years. The match, which was held in Kabul in front of a capacity crowd at the Football Federation Stadium, as well as the roudy celebrations that followed, stood testament to the proposition that Afghans are passionate for football.
The Grassroots Football academy, opened with financial support from Germany and Denmark, looks to be a project that would harness Afghans love of football and guide it toward a more inclusive and developed future.
"We work in 22 countries around the world to promote football among children. Our aim should be to bring football to everyone," said Anders Levinson, a football coach from Denmark who helped spearhead the project.
Over 250 children are expected to be trained by Afghan and foreign coaches at the academy.
"The school will run a five year programme and in the upcoming years 12 more football schools will be opened. However, this year we will open only five schools in Kabul," said Ali Askari Lali, a member of FIFA.
Representatives of the German and Denish delegations assured that more schools would be opened in Kunduz, Balkh, Helmand, Kandahar and Herat provinces.
The officials of the Afghan Football Federation (AFF) said that in the coming five years, over 20,000 children and teenagers would be professionally trained.
Afghan children expressed their joy when news of the opening of the school hit and said that dreams of becoming professional footballers were more likely to come true now.
"We are very happy that we would be trained in a professional manner. I hope to become a good footballer in the future," said one Afghan child who attended the inauguration ceremony.
The Roshan Afghan Premier League (RAPL) - Afghanistan's first nationwiode professional football league - is now in its second season, and will surely fuel the ambitions of many young Afghan footballers brought through the new academies. As history has been made in the Afghan football world not once, but twice in the past couple weeks, the question on everyone's mind is no longer will football in Afghanistan take-off, but rather how high will it go