Kenyan based football academy, Rova Academy has partnered with French side Olympique Lyonnais to help grow talent.
Rova SA is a private multisport academy developed with the aim of revealing the Kenyan athletes of tomorrow.
The partnership, which was officially announced on November 24, is set to benefit the Academy from the expertise from one of the best youth academies in the world.
“It is a great honour to announce the partnership between our clients Olympique Lyonnais with Kenyan academy Rova Academy, a first for Anglophone Africa.”
“Rova Academy has chosen the path less travelled to partner with this great football team in the hopes of creating opportunities for the next Martial, Benzema, Umtiti, Fekir, Lacazette (all products of OL Academy). Run by a woman, Rose Maghas, a first on the continent.”
“OL is considered to have the 3rd best football academy in the world, the best women's football team globally (7 Champions League Titles) and one of the top global football teams.”
“After Lebanon, Senegal, Vietnam, China, Brazil, Morocco, the United States and Portugal, Olympique Lyonnais is happy to open its know-how to a 9th international territory and to become the first Top 20 European club to formalize an elite technical cooperation with a local actor in Kenya,” the club statement stated.
“The partnership between Rova Academy and Olympique Lyonnais means that as a young academy we get to benefit from the expertise from one of the best youth academies in the world & that the raw talent in Kenya will get an opportunity to go through a well-structured and professionally run academy,” Rova Academy founder Rose Maghas stated.
“We are very happy to realize today a new step in our international development through the partnership with Rova Sports Academy. The wonderful project led by Rose MAGHAS and her teams fully illustrates OL’s desire to support structuring and lasting local initiatives to promote the emergence of female and male talents. This new cooperation opens the club’s doors to a new territory with great potential, which augurs rich exchanges both in human and structural terms,” noted Olympique Lyonnais President, Jean-Michel Antoine Aulas.