As part of a working trip to Almaty, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev visited the new Footlab football center, which began to operate in pilot mode. According to Murat Medeuov, the founder of Smart Football LLP, the center is already training 50 students by eight certified coaches. The academy plans to train up to 1,000 children aged 5 to 12, El.kz reports.
According to Akorda, Footlab is an interactive platform for football fans of all ages, designed both for children's and adult tournaments.
This project is part of a Portuguese franchise headquartered in Lisbon, founded by famous Portuguese footballers Rui Costa and Cristiano Ronaldo together with the innovative company 7EGEND. At the moment, the Footlab franchise is represented in more than 60 countries, and the center in Almaty has become the third after Lisbon and Dubai. The total amount of private investment in the project amounted to more than 1.5 billion tenge.
This year, the center intends to receive over 50 thousand visitors and organize tournaments among schoolchildren in Almaty, contributing to the popularization of sports and a healthy lifestyle. Investors plan to expand the network of technology centers throughout Kazakhstan.
President Tokayev instructed the relevant authorities to support the project by allocating a land plot for its development, and approved the idea of building a similar football center in the capital Astana.
President Tokayev wished the young players success in the future and left an autograph on the T-shirt as a souvenir.