LONDON, Aug. 13, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ROK Global Soccer Star, in conjunction with Sporting Lisbon and Bloemfontein Celtic, the Portuguese and South African Premier League football clubs, have today announced the deployment of a unique 3 year football-talent search in South Africa called Academia Sporting Africa.
Global Soccer Star -- www.globalsoccerstar.com -- (GSS), owned by UK-based mobile phone technology, applications and services company ROK Entertainment Group, launched in Tanzania in 2008.
Sponsored by Vodacom, Motorola, Coca-Cola and South African Airways, GSS Tanzania was a nationwide soccer talent-spotting program using mobile phones as the means to reach out to and engage with aspiring, talented football players. More than 11,000 young players across the country were trialed, with 40 of the most talented attending a 4 week residential 'boot camp' in Dar es Salaam during which the players were assessed by a panel of professional coaches and, through a series of weekly TV shows broadcast on Tanzanian TV with public voting, were reduced to 1 outright winner, 17-year-old Francis Castro.
Castro is now in training at leading Belgium football club, Cercle Brugge KSV.
"Our partnership with Sporting Lisbon and Bloemfontein Celtic will see Academia Sporting Africa replicate the successful format of GSS Tanzania on an even more ambitious scale across South Africa," said Jonathan Kendrick, Chairman and CEO of ROK. "And to be doing so over a 3 year period is sure to unearth some really talented players."
The first year's talent search to be undertaken by Academia Sporting Africa will run in all 9 provinces across South Africa from October this year until May 2010 in a series of selections in which many thousands of 13-17-year-old non-professional players will be assessed. The outright winner will receive a 12 month scholarship with Sporting Lisbon in Portugal or at the prestigious Sporting Lisbon Academy in South Africa.
The entire process will then be repeated in 2010 and 2011 and will be filmed for TV broadcast.
"South Africans are passionate about soccer and this will only intensify in the run-up to the FIFA World Cup next year," said Carlos Catalino, Academia Sporting Africa. "And through the proven model of using mobile phones to engage with talented players, we can be sure we are offering the once-in-a-lifetime chance of a professional contract to as many young players as possible."
About ROK:
Founded in 2004, ROK Entertainment Group is a mobile technologies, applications and services development company and has amassed a suite of revenue-generating mobile services which it licenses to Mobile Operators and Handset Manufacturers worldwide. Headquartered in the UK, ROK is best known for its award-winning mobile TV services which streams video -- live and on demand -- over 2.5G, 3G and Wi-Fi(r). In addition, ROK has 5 patent awards and many more patent applications in place. For more information, please visit: www.rokent.com.
The ROK Entertainment Group logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=5361
Forward-Looking Statement:
The information contained in this news release, other than historical information, consists of forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these statements. Forward-looking statements regarding the timing of developing, testing and releasing existing and new products, of marketing and selling them, of deriving revenues and profits from them, as well as the effects of those revenues and profits on the Group's margins and financial position, are uncertain because many of the factors affecting the timing of those items are beyond the Group's control.