Phoenix Academy to host international football showcase

Phoenix Academy head coach Craig Butler has announced that the academy will be hosting an international football showcase set for May 1-7. Butler said the showcase will have in attendance football executives from various clubs across Europe.

Butler confirmed that representatives from clubs in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway will be in attendance at the showcase to measure the talent level on display.

He insisted that these representatives are not scouts or coaches, but rather club owners with the ability to make executive decisions regarding a player’s career.

“These are decision makers. These are not scouts, these are not coaches or assistant coaches. These are the guys who own the clubs,” he said. “We have four owners of football clubs coming from Sweden, Denmark, and Norway.”

Butler explained that the showcase would be done over a series of matches where the Phoenix Academy under-17 squad as well as their elite under-21 squad will get the chance to put their talent on display.

These matches will be played against the age-group squads of selected Jamaica Premier League clubs, with the games to be hosted at the clubs’ home venues.

“We’re going to have three games with our under-17s to show our young talents, then the elite under-21s versus the Premier League clubs under-21s. We’ve invited Waterhouse, Arnett Gardens, Harbour View, and a couple others.

“We are going to play several of the games at the home locations of the Premier League teams. So we’ll play Arnett at Arnett’s field and then Waterhouse at their field,” he added.

The showcase will also feature an invitational match open to any player interested in taking part. He explained that interested players will train with Phoenix Academy before taking part in the showcase.

According to Butler, the open invitational is aimed at players whose talent has gone under the radar due to not playing for bigger clubs.

He said he wants to ensure that all players have the opportunity to showcase their talent as they bid for a professional career.

“We’ll have an open invitational where any player from anywhere can come in and we evaluate them for a couple days, and if they’re good enough, we’ll give them a chance to be seen. We want to open the doors to everyone.

“You might have a player that is out there not playing pro football but he’s a talent and he’s just not getting the chance. So we want to give him the opportunity to come in and give him that chance,” Butler said.