THE Abu Dhabi Rangers Soccer Academy continues to grow from strength to strength.
Established in 2022, the Soccer Academy has been provided an extension as we continue to create a long-term presence within a region traditionally dominated by Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City.
Indeed, the Soccer Academy recently celebrated a significant milestone when its Under-14s side lifted the Manchester City Abu Dhabi League with a 100 per cent record.
RangersTV recently visited the home of the Rangers Soccer Academy Abu Dhabi at Raha International School, Khalifa City Campus, to gain an insight into the incredible development of the programme over the last three years.
Mark Soutar, Abu Dhabi Soccer Academy Manager, believes it was a hugely ambitious move to establish the programme in the region, but he says the strength of the Rangers badge is only continuing to grow in the area.
He commented: “I would say it was a massive leap to come out to a region dominated by Manchester City given they are owned by the sheikhs of Abu Dhabi.
“It was an ambitious challenge for Rangers to come out here, but thankfully Gary Gibson and Iain Greer who lead the project back in Scotland had faith in the programme and that the club could build up over here – and that’s exactly what has happened.
“The brand awareness is a big one. A lot of kids are starting to know who Rangers are over here, and their uniforms having the Rangers crest on it has been one of the bigger take aways.
“It’s a great experience for someone to come from the UK, or any of the other countries that we’re working with, to come over and experience Rangers in this setting.”
David Hill is the Lead Coach of the Abu Dhabi Rangers Soccer Academy and says it was a challenging prospect to grow the programme when he inherited the project alongside Mark Soutar in 2022.
A boyhood Rangers fan, Hill was determined to surround himself with quality coaches who could maximise the potential of the kids.
He added: “We inherited a programme which we didn’t know we were going to get.
“The first week we had 24 sign-ups from Under-8s through to Under-18s, plus at that point we didn’t even have a girls programme.
“It wasn’t particularly great only having 24 kids across those age groups. It was daunting at that time, and we didn’t know what we were going to do to grow it.
“We had so many ideas, but it was about getting the numbers to where we wanted it to get to.
“It slowly started to build through word of mouth, and the massive thing for us has been the coaching.
“All of our coaches have done an amazing job, past and present, and they have done a great job in building the programme.
“Mark and I since we arrived have worked tirelessly to grow the programme.
“It’s taken a lot of manpower, effort and time, but it’s been worth it to see it grow from 24 to roughly 200 kids now.”
You can watch the full interview below.
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