After the successful establishment of The Football Academy, we saw an ever-increasing demand for players wanting to be a part of it. The level of interest was overwhelming! The numbers kept ticking and this led to the launch of the EPC which stands for the Elite Performance Centre. Setting up a club of this caliber was something that I had thought of for a very long time and now finally I got the chance to transform this idea of mine into a reality.
From the very beginning of my football journey, I was on the lookout to create pathways that could help improve the future of our football players. While I was successful in taking players to college football, I never accepted that this was it and you couldn’t go any higher or beyond it. This made me pursue professional football.
Over the years, I tried to find good clubs for players where they could be groomed and their talent was polished to bring out their best performance. I took the players to trials in Italy, Bulgaria, Spain, and other parts of the world but in vain. Nothing much was on offer for the aspiring players who wanted to be at the top level. The search for professional training centers was an endless journey because I failed to find one that I could single out as the best. Either these clubs turned out to be scams, they were badly run, or were just minting money without giving enough attention to the players. This was quite unfair to the young athletes because their precious time and talent were being wasted. With adequate resources and training in a professional club, these very players could have been trained for greater outcomes and exceptional performances. To churn out champions, required world-class coaches and rigorous training. This is precisely why I decided to take matters in my hands and thus EPC was created.
When the UAE leagues launched the new divisions, I knew this was the opportunity I had been waiting for and the way to go forward. Our time had come! We didn’t want to step into it too early so we waited for the right time and created the Football Academy’s EPC after a couple of years. This year we managed to recruit talented players from across the world. The first phase so far has been quite successful as we have managed to put up an impressive team. We are excited to move to the next phase. The team is looking good and the future is shining bright as well so we have high hopes.