Africa could break the glass ceiling of winning the World Cup in the next 10 years, partly thanks to a platform highlighting to foreign clubs the most talented youth from the continent, the co-founder has boldly claimed to AFP.

Morocco’s surprise run to the 2022 World Cup semifinals sparked hopes that such a moment is not far off.

Benjamin Balkin, though, thinks Eyeball, the digital platform he co-founded in 2020, could be the determining factor in ensuring that happens as it provides a shop window for talent which would previously have been missed.

Balkin cheerfully describes himself as a “failed footballer” having played in the academy of French club Monaco but was told he would fall short in the senior ranks.

As a Monaco ballboy, Balkin marvelled at the skills of Ivory Coast superstar Yaya Toure and Togo’s Emmanuel Adebayor.

It was the spark that lit the fuse and has years later resulted in Eyeball investing in an Under-19 championship for Senegalese academies, United Future League, in Senegal. 

That is one part of their investment as they also provide video cameras to 5,000 youth coaches globally, who film training sessions and add tags to individual players which are then placed on the platform.

High-profile clubs like German champions Bayer Leverkusen and Chelsea can access the footage.

It costs clubs just 92 euros ($97) a day to be able to scout 30,000 players across Africa.
Balkin, born in France to Danish parents, says by moving abroad the players grow in every sense which ultimately benefits their national sides.

“Those players leaving African academies and going to European or American academies, their football understanding skills, IQ will improve, because of just a better level of training, better infrastructure,” Balkin told AFP from Copenhagen. “When those players come back and play for the national team, the national teams will also benefit from that and perform probably at a better level.  So maybe if we speak again in 10 years, we’ll have an African nation that has won the World Cup, that wouldn’t be surprising.”

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