By CHARLIE DUMAVI
HEKARI United Football Club (HUFC) is expanding its reach in Papua New Guinea (PNG) by exploring the possibility of establishing new football academies.
After a recent visit to Vanimo, the club’s founder and manager, Mrs. Vonnie Kapi Natto, expressed her desire to see the Hekari Academy established in other provinces, starting with Morobe.
The club is looking at establishing an academy preferably in the Markham district or somewhere outside of Lae city.
“My dream is to see that Hekari Academy can be out in other provinces,” she said.
“I’m going to Morobe very soon but in Markham or probably in the out centers.”
Mrs Natto revealed that she wants to see many players from the other provinces get selected into the national team.
She believes that soccer in PNG is dying and sees the establishment of football academies as a way to help build and guide young players to achieve their dreams and goals.
“Soccer is dying for quite long and an amazing part that encourages me to do that is, soccer is played all around the country. So, I took advantage of that not only for the seniors but for the younger children and I want to see them grow. I want to see many players from the other provinces get selected into the national team because.”
She said today the PNG national teams are made up of players from Port Moresby, Lae and Madang which is not the best representation therefore, her team is looking at expanding their reach to other provinces.
“I’m taking the drive so that we can have academies around the country. In a week from now I’m travelling with some of my coaches to Kokopo, after that I’m travelling to Wewak then all the way to Buka (AROB). From there I’ll be travelling to other centers,” Mrs Vonnie said.
She added that there is a need to improve the pathway for upcoming footballers to represent the country in the near future, and building champions starts from an early age. This includes raising young football talents that will compete to represent the country in the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
HUFC coach Erickson Komeng and David Muta also shared their experience in Vanimo, stating that having football academies around the country is the way forward for football to grow. They witnessed some amazing talent in Vanimo and emphasized the importance of developing players from a young age.
“We witnessed some amazing talent because they don’t play other sport. They play only soccer,” Komeng said.
“It comes back to how well they can be developed from the young age. Academy is very important and right now every province needs to do the same. If we can go around other provinces we will go down to as far as under six years old and work up,” he added.
Whilst in Vanimo, Komeng took charged of young footballers from the age of 15 -20 while Muta worked around with young children aged 15 and bellow.
Muta said working with small kids who are excited to be part of what they are doing shows that the children want to learn and that is a way of help build and guide them to achieve their dreams and goals.
“More of this kind of initiatives to help the children, I think football in the country will really change and will go up to the next level,” Muta said.
Furthermore, Hekari United FC management has already established a football club in Vanimo called Vanimo City FC. This will allow the team to drive all the programs into establishing a football academy.
The club has also recruited three youth players from Vanimo who are currently in the camp in Port Moresby in preparations for the upcoming National Premier League.
The club is one of the leading football clubs in Papua New Guinea and has won several national and regional tournaments. It has produced many talented players who have represented the national team.
