Petaling Jaya – The Deputy Minister of Education, YB Dato’ P. Kamalanathan has applauded the Million Dollar Feet™ football competition. At a press conference today at Brickfields Asia College (BAC), PJ Campus, Dato’ Kamalanathan said, “This Million Dollar Feet™ competition is an excellent example of how corporate entities can help the Ministry of Education to provide the opportunity for our school children to play football in an international league. This is also in line with our Malaysian Education Blueprint where we encourage the participation of corporate organisations and NGOs in assisting and supporting the Ministry of Education in their activities.”
The Million Dollar Feet™ (MDF) initiative will give boys and girls aged 11 to 14 a chance to play football at a professional level – and possibly even the chance to sign with one of Europe’s top football clubs. MDF™ will tour the country, going down to the grassroots to conduct drills with one aim – to find the best of the best, regardless of race, creed or social standing. Students can join the tryouts for free, thanks to BAC’s generous sponsorship for all 10,000 anticipated participants.
With Liverpool legend Steve McMahon as head coach and with the support of global football icons, two finalists will receive an all-expenses paid trip to UK for a chance to sign up or potentially play for a premier European club. If they have what it takes, they will play on the world stage with a chance for them to demonstrate their skills – and shine – in front of scouts from the best clubs.
Million Dollar Feet™ Founder & Director of Football Mr. Peter De Kretser explained “The dream is to have one of our Malaysian kids sign a professional contract and hopefully provide a gateway into the future for more young Malaysian’s cracking the big-time on the world stage!”
The first round of tryouts will be conducted in Penang on 24&25 September from 7.30am at Padang Brown, Jalan Dato’ Keramat. Subsequently, tryouts will be held at Pahang (1&2 October),
Sarawak (8&9 October), Johor (14&15 October) and Kuala Lumpur (21&22 October). On each day, 1,000 candidates will have the chance to tryout.
Also present at the event was Managing Director of BAC Education Group & Founder of EduNation Malaysia, Mr. Raja Singham. Mr. Raja Singham said, “Sports has the ability to unite people and I believe, it is crucial for us to give our children a chance to train and eventually, play with top-notch clubs around the world. At BAC, we believe in the power of education to change lives and thus, a programme like MDF is important to expose our children to the skill sets they need to be world-class football players.”
MDF’s charity partner for the event is EduNation Malaysia. EduNation is a company under the BAC Education Group aimed at providing free online tuition for all Malaysian students. To date, EduNation has over 3,700 videos covering 12 subjects and in four languages – BM, English, Mandarin and Tamil. Over the past four years, EduNation has recorded a total of 3.3 million views with over 90,000 students watching and completing exercises on their portal.
“I am pleased to have EduNation as a charity partner for MDF. EduNation makes high quality education accessible for all. The best way to build a better nation is to improve the standard of education and initiatives like EduNation and MDF™ is an ideal way to do so,” said Raja Singham.
Million Dollar Feet™ is presented by Brickfields Asia College, and sponsored by New Balance,
Kenny Rogers ROASTERS, 100 Plus, LAC Packaging and Printing Press, and Anita Gift and Souvenir in support of EduNation.
For more information on Million Dollar Feet™, please go to www.milliondollarfeet.com or www.bac.edu.my
