Youth and Sports Minister Nii Lantey Vanderpuye has hailed Nestle Ghana Limited, manufacturers of Milo for their direct and continuous support of grass root football development in the Country.

The minister showered praises on the giants beverage company during the launch of the Milo Under-13 Champions League.

Nii Lantey Vanderpuye also made a strong case for the revival of Ghana’s grass root football with a national approach to groom, nurture and monitor juvenile football talents.

This, he identified, would go a long way to ensure that Ghana benefits fully from its talented footballers.

The minister was speaking at the official launch of the 2016 Milo U-13 Champions League on Friday at the Ghana Television (GTV) studios.

The ceremony was graced by several sports personalities including ex-Black Stars captain Stephen Appiah, who has also been assigned as a Brand Icon for the competition.

“We need to give priority to youth development through sports mentorships in all disciplines, including athletics, boxing and others while we also work on the mental attitude of our sports men and women,” Nii Lantey Vanderpuye emphasised.

The 2016 edition of the Milo Champions League (MCL) is the 5th edition which is organized for schools across the 10 regions of Ghana.

The MCL is an annually organized by Nestle Ghana Limited through its Nutritious brand MILO.

The competition is organized in partnership with the Ghana Education Service (GES) and aims at unearthing talents and creating the platform for competitive sport among school children at the grass root level.

In a recorded video, GFA President Kwesi Nyantakyi assured Nestle Ghana and the GES of his continued support for the development of young football talents through Juvenile competitions of this nature.

Stephen ‘Tornado’ Appiah, who is the official brand icon and ambassador for this year’s competition underscored the need for footballers to value education as part of the football career development.

According to him, the days when football was left to school drop outs was a thing of the past hence the new trend of football development required professional education as well to utilise the benefit and advantages that the field offers.

“Football is no more the job of school drop outs, we have professional medical doctors, engineers among others all playing football so it is also important to go to school and play football at the same time.”

The competition which is organized in partnership with the Ghana Education Service (GES) aims at unearthing talents and creating the platform for competitive sport among school children at the grass root level.

General Manager of Nestle Ghana, Mrs Freda Duplan said, “We want to once again take football to the doorstep of children in basic schools. We are here to celebrate future champions, demonstrate eating healthily and making them ambassadors of healthy living.”

The selected teams to play have been grouped into four zones with the winner and first runner-up of every zone qualifying to the finals which comes off in mid June.

Bepong Kwahu Methodist JHS in the Eastern Region are the defending Champions of the Milo U13 Champions League after they defeated Combone R/C JSS from Sogakope 2-0 last year which was hosted at the Paa Joe Park in Kumasi.