Players undergo medical tests for MTN Soccer Academy

6 Skuulz Challenge

Twenty-eight footballers vying for a slot amongst the final 14 teammates to enter the much coveted MTN Soccer Academy House have undergone thorough medical tests as part of the Screening Process.

The twenty-eight were selected from a field of over 1,200 players drawn from the country’s second cycle and tertiary institutions who participated in the various Screening stages of this year’s 6th season of the MTN Soccer Academy, which comprised Field screening, Skills Tests and Personality Tests. The Medical Screening, which is an integral part of the Screening Exercise, is aimed at ensuring that players finally selected into the Academy House are in a state of health and fitness to be able to engage in the various activities that have been earmarked for the Event.

Shedding light on the importance of the Medical Test, Neil Armstrong-Mortagbe, MD of Optimum Media Prime, explained that just like what pertains in virtually all sports worldwide (i.e. the need for certifying a player’s health and fitness to partake in any sporting activity), OMP likewise believes in this process; and “that is why we have made the Medical Test a vital component of the whole Screening process since the inception of the show some six solid years ago,” Mr. Armstrong-Mortagbe noted. The Medical Screening was conducted under the auspices of MDS Lancet Laboratories, a very renowned laboratory with state-of-the-art medical facilities. In a related development, the twenty-eight shortlisted players earlier entered into Contractual Agreements covering their participation in the Event with Optimum Media Prime, organizers of the TV reality show. The signing ceremony, which took place at the offices of Optimum Media Prime in Accra, saw the players, their Parents, Guardians and trusted Witnesses appending their signatures to Sponsorship Contracts for the Event.

The MTN Soccer Academy 6 Skuulz Challenge is a special edition of the annual Soccer Reality Show that has been dedicated to Ghana’s educational institutions to unearth the many soccer talents in the schools. The schools, the organizers believe, offer a perfect platform for discovering these young soccer talents and grooming them into marketable brands both locally and internationally. Fourteen players out of the twenty-eight will be officially inducted into the plush Soccer Academy House located at Ridge in Accra, where they will spend 50 days competing for the ultimate prize.

The Skuulz Challenge version of the MTN Soccer Academy Reality Show, which is a novelty, is an innovation of OMP, a member of the Global Village Group of Companies. The project is sponsored by Africa’s telecommunication giant, MTN.