By Harry Awurumibe, Editor-in-Chief, Abuja
For his great service for the beautiful game and knowledge of African football, former Super Falcons head coach Thomas Dennerby has landed in Cairo, the capital city of Egypt, for a week-long FIFA Talent Hunt Programme.Sweden-born Dennerby, who won the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) 9th title for Nigeria in 2018 in Ghana is leading other coaches and scouts for the FIFA Talent Hunt Programme in Cairo meant to discover talented young male and female players to be groomed by the Egyptian Football Association (EFA).
Speaking exclusively to Prompt News from Cairo, Egypt, today, the former Sweden’s senior women’s football team’s head coach, who started to work for FIFA in the summer of 2024 as a freelancer, said that his experience in coaching Nigeria’s senior women’s football team gave him a broad idea of working in Africa.
According to him, coming to conduct a talent hunt programme in Egypt is like working in Nigeria, pointing out that both countries have many talented players, especially in men’s football.
On the programme in Egypt, he disclosed that he with the support of scouts have, in the first few days, discovered about 35 male players who could become future Egyptian superstars.
Said he: “We have discovered a lot of really good boys. Very difficult decisions to make. This is despite the fact that both many scouts and coaches are in place for the programme. We are
continuing with the guys until Monday. On Tuesday the girls will be there fortheprogramme. It’s rolling me on. It’s very inspiring, I can say.”
Asked if he can still coach elite players in football, Dennerby, who won the FIFA Women’s World Cup Bronze medal with Sweden in 2011, argued that he is ready to take up the job of a Technical Adviser to a national team as his current assignment is a part-time job.
“My present job is to find and evaluate players together with the scouts from the Member Associations (MAs) like EFA. So, I’m a Talent Identification Coach. It’s perfect for me as long as I don’t want to work full time.”, he revealed.
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