Elijah Lidonde Foundation has signed a one-year renewable sponsorship deal worth Sh2m with Standard Global Group.
The deal will see the Foundation receive Sh200,000 per month to run its academy activities in the vast western Kenya region.
This comes barely a month after the Foundation held a successful second edition of the Elijah Lidonde Cup at Bukhungu Stadium. Kakamega Homeboyz beat AFC Leopards 1-0 to lift the trophy.
Last year, the Foundation, under the patronage of former Director General at the Immigration Department Alexander Muteshi, held the Elijah Lidonde Championship that was won by Lurambi Youth.
The two-month tournament attracted 498 teams starting from the sub-location level.
Having already produced several top players led by junior internationals Marion Musanga and Elizabeth Midewa, the Foundation has partnered with six secondary schools (three boys and three girls) in Kakamega County.
They include Musingu High School, St Peter’s Mumias Boys and Shanderema Boys, while the girls’ schools are Archbishop Njenga, St Agnes Shibuye and Eregi Girls.
Speaking during the sponsorship launch in Nairobi today, Muteshi said: “We are excited by this partnership with the Standard Global Group. As a Foundation, we noticed that there’s a gap in football particularly in the area of developing and nurturing talent."
"We decided to come together with these knowledgeable and skilled legends to try to improve the standards of football in the country. We can assure Standard Global Group that their support is going to have a major impact on the development of football not only in western but the whole country,” said Muteshi.
Standard Global Group East Africa Managing Director Vasil Zdravkov was equally pleased with the partnership.
“We are happy to be associated with the Elijah Lidonde Foundation, which deals with nurturing young talented players. We hope to have a long-term partnership,” said Zdravkov.
Foundation chairman Washington Muhanji and Technical Co-ordinator Fred Serenge said the partnership will go a long way in uplifting the standards of football in the region.
“As a Foundation that is inclined towards nurturing and promoting grassroots youth football, we appreciate and thank our sponsors for accepting to support our ongoing project. We have been identifying, developing and placing youthful talents through the schools we have partnered with and through talent search tournaments for both boys and girls in the U15 and U17 categories,” said Muhanji.
“We are immensely delighted with this new partnership. It will help propel our activities to higher levels and thus create a meaningful impact in football standards beyond our horizon.”
Serenge added: “We have produced several players for the national teams as well as the Talanta Hela initiative. For instance, Archbishop Njenga Girls has seven players in the national team through the Talanta Hela initiative, while two of them (Musanga and Midewa) were with the Kenya U20 team."
"All these are products of the Elijah Lidonde U17 championships that we had last year.”
