EPL club Leicester to pour Bt200m into academy to groom Thai talent

Leicester vice chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha yesterday launched the “Siamese Foxes Academy”, to help talented youngsters realise their dreams of a professional career in the world’s most popular league.

Aiyawatt said the project is a priority for the East Midlands club, which is back in Premier League after a 10-year hiatus.

“Our academy is modelled on that of Manchester United, who brought young, talented players from all over England to their academy, with many of them becoming first-team members.

“We think Thai youngsters are just as good, so we set aside Bt200 million for the Siamese Foxes Academy project. We’ll search for young players, aged 16 and under, across the country.

“The preliminary selection will take place in five regions, starting on October 15, to find 110 local talents. For the final round, officials from Leicester academy led by John Rudkin, the academy director, will take part in selecting the final 16 players, who will fly to England to train for two years. They will be offered schooling and college education options while staying there.”

Aiyawatt insisted the Foxes would have no qualms in offering Thai young guns contracts.

“If anyone of them does well enough to catch the eye of our coaches, we would certainly sign him up. Even though we would face many difficulties in signing a player who comes from a country ranked below 75th place in the world rankings, we would try to do everything in our capacity to bring him to the club if he proves to be really good. We’re prepared to take the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport,” said Aiyawatt.