TENS of thousands of entries poured into the Hongkong Football Association for the summer youth promotion scheme starting at various venues next week and officials are confident new talent will be uncovered.
The clinics are split into six age groups for boys between nine and 19 and two age divisions for girls, under-19 and under-13.
The course would be of six sessions and those who showed promise would be enlisted into stage two for another six classes, after which the most promising players will be drafted into district teams.
There would be another eight training sessions and with the programme culminating with an inter-regional competition at the end of the year.
The scheme, sponsored by Yaohan Department Store, has been a tremendous success in previous years with the top players progressing on for scholarship at the Hongkong Sports Institute.
The Coca-Cola supported soccer scholarship programme, headed by HKSI coaches Kwok Ka-ming, Lai Sun-cheung and Chan Yong-chong, has produced 10 footballers who are in the current national squad.
HKSI marketing director William Tam said 41 talented players had completed their scholarship since the scheme was implemented in 1987 and 30 of them were now serving First Division clubs.