Ask any aspiring young footballer about their hopes for the future and they are likely to say they dream of becoming the next Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi; or that they wish they could play for a big La Liga or Premier League club.
For 13-year-old Egyptian Mazen Ahmed, his aspirations in the sport carry a deeper meaning.
“I dream of playing professional football abroad so I can help my people back home; anyone who needs help, I’d like to be able to provide for them,” said the teenager from Suez.
That sentiment is common among the 38 other boys joining Mazen at Right to Dream Egypt, an academy with a unique model which focuses on using football as a tool for social change by developing socially-conscious athletes from a young age.
Right to Dream was founded in Ghana in 1999 by Tom Vernon, a former Manchester United scout in Africa. From day one, the academy’s ethos revolved around three main pillars: education, character development, and football.
A purpose-driven approach is at its core and one of the first things you see at the academy’s main building in Old Akrade, in the Eastern region of Ghana, is a large plaque with a message that reads: “Don’t expect to reach your dreams if you don’t help other people reach theirs.”
In 2016, Right to Dream acquired Danish top-flight club FC Nordsjælland (FCN) and launched an academy there. The idea was to provide academy graduates from Ghana with opportunities to play football professionally in Denmark, with the ambition to then secure transfer deals for the players to one of Europe’s top leagues.
But that is not the only pathway for a Right to Dream graduate. With a commitment to develop student-athletes and providing top-tier education, the academy offers another route for graduates by helping them land athletic scholarships at universities in the United States, where they would play collegiate soccer while pursuing college degrees.
Both pathways have proven to be successful so far.
Qatar 2022 World Cup standout Mohammed Kudus, who scored a brace for Ghana against South Korea in the group stage, is a Right to Dream alum and is currently plying his trade with Dutch giants Ajax, thanks to a €9million ($9.8m) transfer from FCN in 2020. A host of clubs are reportedly showing interest in Kudus at the moment, including Manchester United.
Several other academy graduates have made moves from FCN to Ligue 1 in France, Serie A in Italy and the MLS in the United States.
The academic route has also paid dividends. One recent example is Ousseni Bouda, who was scouted from Burkina Faso to Right to Dream Ghana at age 11. He eventually went to Stanford University and played football there before signing for MLS side San Jose Earthquakes last year and getting his first national team call-up.
Right to Dream arrived in Egypt by way of a landmark partnership with the Mansour Group, a family-owned global conglomerate that “aims to bring greater access, opportunity and equality through football across the globe”.
At the end of 2020, the Mansours, who are Egyptian, invested €100m to assume majority control of Right to Dream, with Vernon remaining the other significant shareholder.
The concept of an academy where children can both study and train in football is practically unheard of in Egypt. Add to that the fact that Right to Dream are offering full scholarships for every enrolled student, pledging to keep them on board until they graduate with a high school diploma, irrespective of how their football development goes. Whether you get injured or face any other significant setback in the sport, you get to stay and receive an education.
The scouting process in Egypt began in June 2021 as the Right to Dream team embarked on a six-month journey that took them to all corners of the country. They visited over 20 governorates, from Alexandria to Aswan, and saw nearly 35,000 kids between the ages of 10 and 14 for try-outs.
During an early research phase of the project, Mohammed Wasfy, who is the Managing Director of Right to Dream Egypt, tried to identify why young talents in the country start off very strong in football compared to others in their age group globally but then eventually suffer a steep decline.
“Nothing gets better because of lack of development,” Wasfy said. “When you’re around and you ask, ‘What’s wrong with Egyptian players?’, the response is, ‘The mentality is not there’. When you dig deeper and you try to find out what’s wrong with the mentality – and that’s what I figured out throughout all of my trips travelling the whole country – is that most of the boys live in an unstructured environment.
“We’re talking about food, hours of sleep, they stay up until 1, 2, 3am, wake up at 2pm. They don’t really care about education, most of them. So taking these kids out of an unstructured environment and putting them in a structured one, with proper development, will always allow for their trajectory to keep going on the rise.”
Talent identification across Egypt was spearheaded by Jeremy Seethal, the Head of African Recruitment at Right to Dream, with the help of the academy’s head scout in Egypt Islam Megahed.
Football runs in Megahed’s veins as the son of the late Hassan Megahed, who used to be the manager of El Mansoura Club and also managed Talaea El Gaish. He was named Best Coach in Egypt for four consecutive years.
Islam Megahed has several years of experience unearthing talent in the Delta region but explained how Seethal brought a unique philosophy when it came to scouting.
“He has his own criteria that are very different to the criteria we use in scouting here in Egypt,” said Megahed. “Here we focus a lot on physical abilities, but abroad, they focus on skill and talent, because that is what can take a player far. In Egypt, we look at short-term gains, whereas Jeremy and scouting philosophies abroad think about the long term; what can I win after 10 to 15 years?”
At all try-outs, representatives from Right to Dream’s Education department were present to assess the boys’ academic level and cognitive ability. The candidates went through tests so that teachers knew what to expect from them and whether specific education plans were needed to be created for any given child.
Discipline and behaviour were also assessed by the Pastoral, Purpose and Character Development department and ultimately selections were made based on all three factors: football talent, education, and character.
Unlike the majority of try-outs held in Egypt that require a registration fee, Right to Dream’s were free to all, and they even covered the bus fare for any commuters.
Earning the trust of parents was a real challenge but the academy’s team, led by the Pastoral department, made sure they visited families in their homes to address all their concerns.
“You’re creating a project that can revolutionise football in Egypt, but people don’t understand that yet when they first meet us,” said Megahed. “We visited some very tough environments, where poverty is quite prevalent. To some parents, it’s like you’re stealing their child. But we had very honest and open conversations with the parents and eventually they realised they are sending their kids somewhere safe. And now, the parents are encouraging others to send their children to us.”
The first round of try-outs eventually resulted in 28 boys, born between 2008 and 2012, joining Right to Dream Egypt, with the tally rising to 39 after a second round that targeted the years 2010 to 2014. At full capacity, the academy will house 100 students.
“I think this will have a very positive impact on Egyptian football in six or seven years’ time,” added Megahed. “Besides this being a project that will bear fruit on Right to Dream itself, I see it as an initiative that will help Egypt as a nation.
“The fact that we’ll have 100 talents in the next three to four years that can go on and feed into the Egyptian National Team by the time the 2030 World Cup comes around, I feel we’re on the right track and the people we have on the ground are of really high calibre and they’re all very ambitious and very passionate about the project.”
The first academic year for Right to Dream Egypt began last autumn with the boys spread across six grade years. A curriculum is being built that emphasises character development and social consciousness.
“From ages eight to 15, we concentrate on identity, purpose, success and it all works around how grounded the individual is,” said Farrah Ragai, the Head of the Academy. “On the pitch, in the classroom, in the dorms, how does he look like, how does he feel, who is impacting him? And when he’s abroad, who is he there, what does his identity look like, who is he impacting, what’s impacting him, is he giving back? And then in Europe or the US down the road, what is the ripple effect he is bringing to the community he is in?”
The ties between all three academies in Ghana, Egypt, and Denmark are strong and cultures are being exchanged through organised trips across the bases in Africa and Europe.
It’s also a collaborative effort within each academy, which was obvious from my visit to Right to Dream Egypt. The teachers make sure they attend the boys’ football practices in the afternoons and the coaches stop by the school sessions during the day.
“The kids are their natural selves on the pitch and they want their teachers to see that. And the teachers being there supports that. It tells the boys that we support you as football players,” said Ragai. “Everybody is aligned. If we have one concern, it spreads everywhere. So this kind of dedication and responsibility isn’t available in many places. It’s an academy for developing human beings using football as a tool and education. So it's not a football academy full stop.”
A girls’ residential academy is part of Right to Dream Egypt’s future plans (by 2025) but they have already started investing in women’s football by establishing a team at Tut, a club they acquired, which competes in Egypt’s women’s Premier League and the men’s fourth division.
A state-of-the-art facility is currently under construction over an area of 15 acres in a development called Badya in west Cairo and it should be ready for Right to Dream Egypt’s upcoming academic year. It will have a school licensed by the Ministry of Education, accommodation for the boys, the staff and for teams visiting from Denmark and Ghana, as well as for senior management. There will be a recreational area, a swimming pool, and other sports facilities along with a training centre that has a gym, a physiotherapy medical room, changing rooms and offices.
In the meantime, the boys are based in a temporary location in Zamalek, where they live, go to school, and train all in one place.
A standout young talent among the current group is a 14-year-old boy from Kafr El Sheikh called Abdelrahman Afifi.
“Afifi is brilliant. I coach him and I sit back and say he’s going to be the first person to get out of Right to Dream Egypt making a big name for himself,” said Addo Isaac, who himself attended Right to Dream Ghana from 1999 to 2006 before becoming a football coach at the academy.
“He’s a skilful player, he can dribble, he’s quick, he’s smart, he makes good decisions, without the ball and with the ball. And when you do that, you’re always thinking ahead before you receive the ball, that makes you special, makes you different.”
Afifi says his life “has changed 180 degrees” since joining the academy.
“From discipline, nutrition, sleep, training, I’m really happy and I’m improving a lot,” he said. “I want to be the fastest player in the world and I’d love to win a Golden Boot in the Spanish League. My dream is to play in Barcelona one day.”
Right to Dream Egypt plan on doing everything possible to give him a head start.
