QNET, Manchester City clinic equips 25 young Ghanaian footballers with skills, life values

Four-day training camp delivered under decade-long partnership casts football as both a sporting and developmental pathway for African youth.

Lifestyle and wellness firm QNET have concluded a four-day football clinic in Accra for more than 25 young Ghanaian boys and girls, delivered in partnership with English Premier League champions Manchester City, the latest installment of a decade-old collaboration that company executives say is designed to nurture African sporting talent while instilling discipline, teamwork and self-belief.

Speaking at a press conference in Accra to mark the close of the clinic, QNET’s Chief Network Development Officer, Trevor Kuna, and Deputy Regional General Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa, Cherif Bassirou Abdoulaye Sarr, framed the initiative as more than a sporting exercise — casting it as a vehicle for mentorship, gender inclusion and youth empowerment on the continent.

“Talent exists everywhere, and passion exists everywhere,” Mr. Kuna told reporters. “We clearly saw passion on that pitch. But talent must also be nurtured and developed.”

He said the young participants, drawn from diverse backgrounds, were exposed to world-class training delivered by Manchester City coaches and exited the camp with values that extended beyond the pitch, among them discipline, teamwork, confidence, focus, communication and mutual respect.

Drawing a parallel between the coaching model and QNET’s business philosophy, Mr. Kuna said the company’s approach to its independent distributors mirrored what the children had experienced over the four days. “You cannot give someone an opportunity without also guiding and supporting them,” he said. “We coach and support our independent distributors by equipping them with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed professionally.”

For the QNET executive, the through-line of the Manchester City partnership was “the transfer of knowledge, from coaches to young players, and from mentors to entrepreneurs”,  a model he said reflected the company’s commitment to “raising standards, developing people properly, and helping as many individuals as possible along the way.”

Mr. Sarr, who is Senegalese, situated the clinic within a wider African cultural context, arguing that the sport carries developmental weight far beyond entertainment. “Football is not just entertainment or identity for many Africans, it is hope,” he said. “For many young people, football represents an opportunity to rise above difficult circumstances, succeed in life, and support their families.”

Of the more than 25 young people who took part in the clinic, six were girls, a participation patterns the QNET executive flagged as particularly significant. “Despite the challenges they may face, they demonstrated tremendous passion, courage and determination,” he said. “They reminded us that there is a place for girls not only in football, but in every space, they choose to enter.”

QNET and Manchester City have been partners for more than a decade, with similar youth football clinics previously hosted in other African markets, including Nigeria. The Ghana edition, executives said, was distinguished by the breadth of participation and the visible enthusiasm of the participants over the four days of training.

Mr. Sarr used the occasion to underline QNET’s local footprint, pointing to the company’s compliance office, led by Nana Krate, and an experience centre in Accra where its wellness and lifestyle products are showcased. He said operations in Ghana are run by “young Africans who believe in Africa’s future and in empowering the continent’s youth through entrepreneurship and opportunity.”

“We are not visitors to this country or to this continent,” he added. “We are part of this community.”

Both executives closed by returning to the developmental message that anchored the four-day exercise. The children, Mr. Sarr said, had absorbed lessons in discipline, focus and teamwork that would outlast the clinic itself. “Young people must believe in themselves,” he said. “With discipline, focus, determination and self-belief, anything is possible.”

If there was one image he wished to leave with the public, he added, it was that of the joy carried by the participants throughout the camp, proof, in his telling, of one of the coaches’ simplest but most enduring lessons: “enjoy what you do and have fun while pursuing your dreams.”

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