And, in lighter news…
They swapped into their new jerseys and dashed onto the field early this morning guided by a pro Belizean footballer Nana-Yaw Mensah. Mensah says he wanted to give back to the community and decided to hold a football clinic at Berger Field for the boys with a love for the sport just like him. Jomarie Lanza was there and here's how it went.
He's played in countries like Turkey, Malta and the USA for most of his career and spent 10 years playing on Belize's National team now this football athlete along with his family and friends are giving back to the community by hosting a football camp for kids in Belize. They started off the event this morning by giving away jerseys to the kids. Nana-Yaw Mensah told us why he felt the need to organise this initiative for them.
Nana-Yaw Mensah, Football Player:
"So I felt its time to give back to the youth. We are going to host a little clinic to let the kids have fun and enjoy a little give back. You know let the kids feel us."
"We are going to run son drill see where they are with their technical abilities and their dribbling skills and see what skills they have and at the end we will choose who we think are the best players MVP best defender, best goalkeeper and we have some gifts for the kids."
"It has always been a dream of mine to give back to the youth anywhere and I think to start here in Belize City is the best thing to do."
Having invested more than a decade of his life playing football Mensah says he hopes the sport will have an impact on their life as much as it has for him.
Nana-Yaw Mensah, Football Player:
"The main goal is to inspire the youth and how we inspire is by doing things like this and football has done a lot for my life it has been my life since I was three years old it has been a dream of mine to play on the international stage play across Europe and ive done that but it takes a lot of hard work and we need to show the youth that if they want to make it they can but it takes a lot of hard work and dedication."
We also spoke to some of the football fanatics who wasted no time to start playing on the pitch. We asked them what they love the most about the sport.
Amarion Martinez, Grace Primary student:
"I like football because my dream is to be a football player."
"who is your favourite team"
"Al-Nassr"
"And your favourite player?"
"Cristiano Ronaldo."
Jerrod, Saint Martins Student:
"Football is good, it is fun and I just love football, when I was young I saw my uncle going to play football and I always wanted to play football so I started to play football."
"Who is your favourite player player and team"
"Cristian Ronaldo,"
"My favourite team is Al-Nassr."
Brighton Brown, St John Vianney Student:
"Football is my sport from when I was small I just love seeing people play getting opportunities getting goals and celebrate/."
"My favourite team Samson Academy for Belize but from states, Real Madrid and my favourite player is Mbappe."
