Ascent Soccer contributed four players in the triumphant Malawi U-20 in 4-Nations tournament

Lilongwe’s Ascent Soccer academy products continue to shine on the international stage as four of them were in the triumphant Under-20 Malawi national team that won the 4-Nations on Sunday beating Kenya 3-1.

A heads up from Ascent Soccer in a statement, are products of Lilongwe’s Ascent Soccer academy congratulates its scholars and staff “on this much-deserved success”, saying both Ascent Soccer youth and its Lingadzi campus have been shining when given the opportunity in junior national teams.

The four Ascent up-and-coming youth talent are Julius Banda (18), Hermas Masinja (18), Mwisho Mhango (16) and Washari Jaziya (18), who made a major impact with Malawi’s U-20 national team with wins over Zimbabwe and Kenya.

“This was huge accomplishment for Malawi and all four Ascent boys, with Washari captaining the U-20 squad while Mwisho, captain of the U-17s, earned the start in the tournament opener at just 16 years of age,” said the statement.

It adds that their campus also hosted Zambia’s senior national team player, Patson Daka, who plays for Leicester City in England and is part of the Chipolopolo that is playing the Flames this afternoon in the 4-Nations third place play-off event.

On March 6, Football Association of Malawi (FAM) president Fleetwood Haiya paid a courtesy call to Ascent Soccer to appreciate the efforts of the academy, which is the only full-time football academy that also has a scholarship program in the country.

A report on Fam.mw said Haiya applaude Ascent Soccer for facilitating the move of a number of players abroad, which will be key to transforming the game’s player export strategy.

“As a country, we don’t have big football stars in big leagues of Europe, America and the Middle East,” he is quoted as saying. “This is due to the unviability of a systematic plan to export our best talents for development in the world’s best leagues.

“One way of realising that is to nurture and export talent via scholarships through academies and high schools. Ascent is doing that and we need to work with them so that we increase the number of players abroad and this is why I am here to appreciate these wonderful efforts.

“As FAM, we have developed guidelines for regulating academies and have embarked on an exercise to register and license all academies in the country.

“We will support the academies to ensure we have structured player development platforms and defined systematic pathways,” reports Fam.mw.

The achievements of Ascent Soccer are unprecedented as it also contributed five players to the Malawi Scorchers that wrote history by lifting the COSAFA Women Championship in South Africa last year.

The five whom the academy nurtured from grassroots level are 17-year-old Rose Kabzere; Leticia Chinyamula (17); Faith Chinzumu (16); Maggie Chavula (18) alongside Ireen Khulamo (20).

The 2-1 championship final victory over Zambia saw Ascent’s Rose Kabzere and Leticia Chinyamula in the starting XI and both Rose and Leticia appeared in all five of the Scorchers matches (3 starts and 2 substitute appearances).

The Ascent Soccer ‘youth movement’ didn’t stop there — as Faith Chinzumu and Maggie Chavula also being considered in the line-up, alongside Ascent graduate Ireen Khulamo, who was used as left back.

Their wins included 4-3 against hosts and record seven-time champions South Africa’s Banyana Banyana (4-3); against e-Swatini (8-0); against Madagascar (3-1); against Mozambique (2-1); and Zambia (2-1), Rose Kabzere collected a goal and four assists — with Leticia netting two.

This is not the first time Ascent products have been spotted by FAM scouts for the national teams as in 2022, two —  Ireen Khumalo and Marian Mnenula — were part of the squad for COSAFA Women’s Championship while four girls were in the Malawi Under-17 squads for the 2022 Regional 5 Games.

At the COSAFA boys Under-17 tournament held in Mauritius in 2018, Ascent contributed three players — Francis Mtoso, Emmanuel Mitole and Lovemore Mbeta with Mtoso and Mitole scoring two of Malawi’s six goals.

Through Ascent’s founder, George Maguire, Malawi has the best female export, Tabitha Chawinga, who is playing for Paris St. Germain (PSG) on loan from Wuhan Jianghan University of China where she plays alongside her sister Temwa Chawinga.

Tabitha first went to Europe when Maguire spotted her playing for her local club, DD Sunshine at the age of 17 and after pulling together a video and spreading the word, helped her land a professional contract with Sweden’s Kvarnsvedens IK.

Founded in 2014, Ascent Soccer is Malawi’s leading football academy, having assessed over 40,000 young players across Malawi — several of them being drafted in FAM’s junior national teams.

In June last, Ascent Soccer became the first ever organisation to receive a Lifetime Achievement award from FAM for its exceptional excellence in youth development initiatives.

This was when FAM rewarded outstanding football personalities in the country that included legendary former Flames goalkeeper, Dennis Saidi; former FIFA referee, Everson Mkwangwanya and illustrious administrator, Robin Alufandika.

In its citation for the award presented to Founder George Maguire Maguire, FAM recognised that since its inception, Ascent Soccer has developed into a residential academy with over 80% of its players in boarding facilities and it is the only full-time academy soccer and scholarship program in the country.

Through guidance of Maguire, it delivers opportunities and global pathways for both boys and girls and over the years, Ascent Soccer has run regional talent identification events and open trials for over 40,000 youth, from which their current group of 65 student-athletes has been selected.

Over seven years of programming, they have enrolled full-time soccer scholars from every region of Malawi, whose current academy set-up includes male U-14, U-16 and U-18 squads, along with the U-14 & U-18 Ascent Girls.

All five groups enjoy a full-time academic, character, football, and health/nutrition program, led by a committed group of international and local staff — and there are no fees or costs for any of Ascent’s student-athletes.

The Ascent Soccer Global Scholarships’ opportunities are life-changing for the talented and determined student-athletes.

In 2019, Maguire was honoured with Non-Citizen of the Year award by Malawi Sport annual awards administered by Malawi National Council of Sports, for the very recognition of the grassroots football development initiative.

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