Chapa Dimba Na Safaricom Partners With Spain’s LaLiga For Season Two Of The Youth Tournament

An all-Star team will get an opportunity to train and play in Spain Nairobi, Kenya – Saturday, 15th September 2018… Safaricom (NSE: SCOM) has today announced a partnership with Spain’s top football league, LaLiga for the second edition of the Chapa Dimba Na Safaricom youth football tournament. The partnership between Safaricom and LaLiga involves a

An all-Star team will get an opportunity to train and play in Spain

Nairobi, Kenya – Saturday, 15th September 2018 Safaricom (NSE: SCOM) has today announced a partnership with Spain’s top football league, LaLiga for the second edition of the Chapa Dimba Na Safaricom youth football tournament.

The partnership between Safaricom and LaLiga involves a scouting program that will see certified LaLiga coaches travel to Kenya to search for talented players, both boys and girls, who will make up an all-star team.

“We are very excited to be bringing on board LaLiga to add to the already existing partnership we have with FKF for this second season of Chapa Dimba Na Safaricom. As you know LaLiga is home to some of the best footballers in the world including five time world player of year Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Antoine Griezmann and Luka Modric. The all-star team selected will get a chance to attend a 10 day the training camp in Spain and will also play a few friendly games against the world’s best Spanish LaLiga academies”, said Charles Kare, Acting Director, Consumer Business Unit, Safaricom.

Just like the first season the tournament will target talented male and female youth aged between 16 and 20 with an aim of developing grassroots football, scouting for talent and propelling gifted players to the national limelight.

“When we launched the first edition of Chapa Dimba Na Safaricom, we promised to offer young, gifted footballers a platform to showcase their talent. We kept our promise with 13 players from season one getting the chance to join under-20 national team. Several players have also been signed up by the local top leagues for both men and women. We are looking forward to unearthing even more talent in season two”, said Nick Mwendwa, FKF President.

Over 1,500 teams took part in the first season of the tournament whose final was held at the Bukhungu stadium in Kakamega. The launch of the second season was marked with friendly matches involving reigning Champions, Kapenguria Heroes and Plateau Queens who played Nairobi region champions Gor Mahia Youth FC and Beijing Raiders.

“If the talent on show today is anything to go by, then LaLiga certified coaches will be in for a tough time selecting the all-star team that will travel to Spain. We are really excited about this partnership with a leading brand such as Safaricom and we look forward to hosting the young boys and girls who will have been chosen”, said Gregory Bolle, Head of Global Partnerships and Marketing, LaLiga.

Registration for tournament will close on 30th September with group games being played countrywide from October 2018. Registration forms are available via the Website (https://chapadimba.safaricom.co.ke/) and from all Safaricom shops and local FKF offices.

The top regional teams will qualify for the national finals where the winners in both the men and women categories will walk away with KES 1 Million.

About Safaricom

Safaricom transforms lives.

We provide voice, data, financial services and enterprise solutions for a range of subscribers, small businesses and government, using a variety of platforms.

We delight over 29.5 million subscribers, providing over 200,000 touch points for our customers and offering over 100 different products under our portfolio.

Listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange and with annual revenues in excess of KES 200 Billion, Safaricom invested KES 38 billion in infrastructure this year, providing over 80% of Kenya’s population with 4G and 3G coverage and providing 2G coverage to 95% of Kenyans. Safaricom has harnessed its proprietary fibre infrastructure to build a dedicated enterprise business, which provides managed I.T. services to clients in the East African region.

Safaricom pioneered commercial mobile money transfer globally through M-PESA, the most successful service of its kind anywhere in the world.  Launched in March 2007, M-PESA now has over 27.8 million customers and over 148,000 M-PESA Agent outlets countrywide.

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About LaLiga

LaLiga is a league that has shown tremendous commitment to Africa through the opening of offices in South Africa and Nigeria, in addition to having a representative in Kenya in the last three years. Through its work with corporate partners, local football leagues and federations, LaLiga is highly engaged in bringing football closer to its fans. Last year alone, LaLiga brought both FC Barcelona and Atletico Madrid’s stars to play friendlies on the continent.