Man Utd set up South African talent scheme with help from club legends

Manchester United legends Ryan Giggs and Nicky Butt have helped the club set-up a South African talent scheme.

United youth coach Quinton Fortune has used his connections at the club to help his former international teammate Delron Buckley form the partnership aimed at giving South African hopefuls a better opportunity in the game.

Buckley currently owns a football academy in his homeland but will now work with United to send promising young players over for trials and an opportunity to further their career by training at Carrington.

"So we've joined the Manchester United Class of '92, which is Ryan Giggs, Phil Neville and Nicky Butt, and we've been sponsored with an amount of R5-million," Buckley told KickOff.com.

"They've now given us funding to take kids from South Africa to Manchester United, obviously for trials, and the whole package basically.

"It came about when I visited Quinton Fortune because he's a coach there. We put a little package together for the Class of '92 and I explained what I'm doing in South Africa.

"Because our local kids don't get enough opportunities, and when I look at kids overseas and how they are doing and the sort of back-up they have, I realised our country needed the same and that's how we got to work with them.

"We were supposed to send some players now but because of the coronavirus we couldn't do much. But as soon as it's over we are going to be able to send our first players over to Man United."

Former South African international Buckley enjoyed a successful playing career in the Bundesliga, and he says talks are also underway to try and establish a similar partnership with German giants Borussia Dortmund.

He added: "We are in communication with Borussia Dortmund.

"We haven't partnered with them as yet but they do want to meet with us. When the Bundesliga was here we had a chat with the people from there but at the moment we are working with Manchester United."