Wales has held the first FIFA Talent Academy milestone event in Europe as the country strives to offer more opportunities for girls to pursue a career in the game. The academy is part of the FIFA Talent Development Scheme (TDS) which has been introduced in more than 180 FIFA Member Associations around the world, providing them with expert guidance to help ensure that every talented player is given a chance.

The academy, for girls only, is located at the Welsh National Football Development Centre, known as Dragon Park, in Newport and will boost the Football of Wales’ (FAW) own academy system. The ceremony was attended by FIFA Director of Global Football Development Steven Martens and the FAW Chief Executive Noel Mooney, among others.

The ceremony included a video message from FIFA President Gianni Infantino. “Football in Wales has been vibrant in recent years and this new FIFA Talent Academy is the latest piece in the jigsaw,” he said. “The FIFA Talent Academy is a vital investment in the dreams of young players. It will help identify, nurture and develop local talent, providing a pathway for [them] to shine, both regionally and globally.”

Describing it as a momentous day both for the FAW and FIFA, Mr Mooney said: “For us, we obviously want to build a world-class association and give every player the chance to go from a park pitch to the (FIFA) World Cup. That’s the dream that we always have.”

He said that the FAW aimed to ensure that “every girl in Wales has a chance to go through our system to get the world-class coach that they need so they can reach their full potential, not just as players but as people as well, and be role models to people around them“.

There are already 37 FIFA Talent Academies up and running around the world and each aims to ensure that the best young players receive the best possible coaching, have access to proper facilities and a chance to play in a competitive environment.

“Our objectives and FIFA’s objectives are exactly aligned. All the objectives of the Talent Development Scheme, for example, are right down our street. So, we want to thank FIFA very much for choosing Wales to be ......the first UEFA nation to celebrate this massive milestone of recognising our Regional Development Programme as an Elite Academy with FIFA’s criteria,” said Mr Mooney.

“Under (FIFA President) Gianni (Infantino)’s leadership over the last number of years, we’ve seen FIFA take huge strides and we are very much one of the beneficiaries of doing that.”

Wales participated in the UEFA Women’s EURO for the first time this year and Mr Mooney said they were now aiming to qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027™ in Brazil, for what would also be their debut at the tournament.

The FIFA Talent Coach for the Wales academy, Rachel Lever, said it would complement the talent development work already being done by the FAW. “There [are] a lot of girls here playing behind us. And then it’s significant for them to come to Dragon Park and play. They will have never played here, so it’s huge to bring them to this venue. Hopefully, it will inspire them to kick on and invest in themselves, to kick on another level and hope that they can be part of the Talent Academy in the future,” she said.

“Success for me is always improving individual players. And, you know, if it means that we have more players entering the national team pathway that have come from our academy, then that’s success. If we manage to move at the end of the season some of our under-16s into academies either in England or Adran (Premier) teams across Wales in that first team environment, then that’s success for me in terms of [helping] them in the next part of their journey to continue to develop. And hopefully play for our national team in the future.”