50 youth players at AirAsia-QPR football clinicby Saiful Bahari, reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on November 19, 2013, Tuesday

PRIZED SOUVENIR: Hassan (centre), Evans (second right) and Aireen (second left) after the presentation of a QPR jersey.

LET’S GO!: One of the coaches with the participants in action at the clinic yesterday.

KUCHING: Two young players from Malaysia have been identified from the AirAsia-QPR Coaching Clinic Tour which made its last stop here yesterday.

This was disclosed by QPR (Queens Park Rangers) in the Community Trust CEO Andy Evans.

“The level of standard shown by participants was impressive. We have identified two players and they stand a chance to be flown to London to train in the Queens Park Rangers Academy at Loftus Road, London for a week,” he told reporters at SMK Tabuan Jaya here yesterday.

He added that the tour had coached over 300 young players aged 15 to 16 in Singapore and Malaysia. Only seven players will be selected for the trip.

Earlier on, Air Asia Berhad CEO Aireen Omar said AirAsia was proud to bring the development programme to Kuching which would benefit grassroot football development.

“We are out to identify promising football talents and with the guidance of highly experienced QPR coaches, they will be trained with advanced skills to make them better players and become valuable assets for the state,” she explained.

“Sarawak and East Malaysia as a whole are an important hub for us and our success in East Malaysia is due to the strong support from the community and state government,” she stressed.

AirAsia has been involved in numerous sports development initiatives for the benefit of the youths and enabled athletes such as MotoGP rider Zulfahmi Khairuddin and international squash player Low Wee Wern to compete at the highest level.

Around 50 youth players participated in yesterday’s one-day clinic which was conducted by QPR academy coaches, Danny Edwards, Stephen McCarthy, Matino Cheavannes and Adam McLachlan.

Also present at the event was SMK Tabuan Jaya principal Hassan Wa’Gani.

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