It's every football boy's dream to become the next Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi. Well, 16 year old Jardehl Muschamp might be closer to that dream of being the next big name in football. But he needs your help. Muschamp got a partial scholarship to attend FC Barcelona Youth Soccer Residency Academy in Arizona, USA. His father says it is a very big deal - but at a very big price. Now the family has to come up with the $83,000 Belize to foot the bill of the partial scholarship and they are asking for donations. We met Muschamp and his dad today.
Hilberto Muschamp, Father
"We just wanted to give Jardehl an opportunity to showcase his talent so we had him lined up to go to an ex-coach of mine to try out for a team and that didn't work out and when that door closed we start looking on internet and we found the Barca Academy in Arizona, and so I enroll him online and we made all the traveling arrangements and we took off thinking we were just going to try our luck, come to find out at the end of the try out's we were one out of 3 of 68 that had participated and they had players from 27 states and 4 different countries. This was the 3rd of such try outs for the Barca Academy, this was the last one so with that said unfortunately they had already given out most of their student scholarship. Yesterday I got a call that they granted us a partial scholarship so it is $69,000 for the year and I think we get $27,000 and some change scholarship and it's US. So that is why we are here, we are looking to seek the assistance of the Belizean public to assist in any way because it is not every day we can have a Belizean have an opportunity like this to excel at something that he is good at."
"The way I look at it, it sounds like a lot of money and I think it is, the last time I checked our census in Belize I think we are a little over 300,000 we must have 83,000 people working who can give us a dollar that is the way I look at it. I mean this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and whatever he does if he gets in he will be representing the entire country of Belize and more so I think he will open the door for a lot of young kids in this country and that is the big picture I want to send home because if he can go there and excel I can't see why next year these people can't come and look for the next best thing because we all know Messi won't last much longer."
Courtney Weatherburne, reporter
"And when you found out you were chosen, you were one of 3 very fortunate people to be selected."
Jardehl Muschamp, Young Football Player
"I was excited again you know and I work hard for it and train hard for it and thing."
Courtney Weatherburne, reporter
"Just explain to people why they should invest in you and talk about your love for football."
Jardehl Muschamp, Young Football Player
"I believe people should invest in me you know because I consider myself a good player and I believe I can excel at the academy. I really love football, I have been playing for as long as I remember and I hope people will try to support me so I can live my dream."
If you would like to help you can contact Sheritt Linarez at 615-3218 or Hilberto Muschamp at 615-7523. You can also deposit money in the Heritage Bank account number 111-1246. There is also a Go Fund me page called help Jardehl shine for Belize.
Email
Print