Nyondo offered 4-year scholarship worth K48m in US

After a highly successful first year in the USA, Lilongwe based elite soccer development academy, Ascent Soccer’s starlet Lughano Nyondo has been offered a 4-year scholarship worth $65,000 (K48 million) a year to study at Brooks School, Boston.

Following her initial move to the US in August 2019, at Indian Mountain School, Lughano excelled by finishing top scorer for the school and being voted Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the season.

Ascent Soccer’s Director of Soccer and Programs, George Maguire said her impeccable performances caught the eye of Brooks School, who offered her an outright scholarship.

Lughano, the 14-year-old initially from Mzuzu, recently spent 5 months in Seattle having been on a training placement in her spring break holidays when following COVID-19 pandemic.

“She completed her school year online, won Grade 8 Athlete of the Year Award and spent several months training in small groups at OL Reign Academy, which is an academy for one of the best women’s football clubs in the US in which US World Cup winner Megan Rapinoe plays,” Maguire said.

“Brooks represents a fantastic option for Lughano, both academically — to excel and set herself up for a world-class university opportunity — and also to keep nurturing her soccer skills.

“This is a strong school soccer program and elite youth female club league across the East coast of the US and we as Ascent Soccer believe she has the potential to emerge in the coming years as the best female player from Malawi after Tabitha and Temwa Chawinga.

“She now playing as a role-model and fine ambassador for Malawi and the female game in Malawi, of which Ascent Soccer is proud of.”

Lughano joined Ascent Soccer in 2018 as a 12-year-old as part of the annual nationwide scouting program and has gone from strength to strength through opportunities created by the academy’s structures.

She is part of the in-production ‘This Girl Wears Cleats’ documentary on gifted female players from all over the world, leading to her attending the Women’s World Cup final in Lyon, France, last summer.

Ascent Soccer Academy has assessed 25,000 youth players from across Malawi since 2015 to create a residential academy of 70 players, both male and female that they invest into holistically through advanced soccer coaching, character development and education.

Since 2015, Ascent Soccer has produced nine youth internationals for Malawi National junior teams and two global scholars at elite private boarding schools in the USA.

Ascent Soccer, now with bases in both Malawi and Uganda, prides itself on being a ‘social impact’ soccer academy that delivers grassroots programs and empowers exceptional soccer and academic talent across East Africa.

Founded in 2014, Ascent now has over 100 full-time boys and girls from Malawi, Uganda, Kenya, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

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