During the later half of July, the City of Terrace is set to play host to a camp that might prove to be a once in a lifetime opportunity for some.
From July 20th to 24th, Portugal’s largest and most decorated soccer club, S.L Benfica, will be running an elite academy camp at Christy Park for kids between the ages of 8 to 18, and what would happen at the camp was elaborated upon further by one of the camp’s organizers, Steve Pereira, along with highlighting another reason this is a big honour for Terrace;
“They’re going to be working with the kids that have registered and teaching them the technical training from their club standpoint. It’s really exciting because we are the only stop in all of British Columbia on their Canadian tour. To have them come all the way from Lisbon is a huge accomplishment for our soccer community.”
The Terrace Youth Soccer Association was able to team up with Euro Football Exchange, a company responsible for bridging the gap between Europe and Canada Football activities, to bring Benfica here and while also negotiating to have some of Euro Football’s own coaches attend the camp as instructors alongside some Benfica coaches.
Registration for the camp remains open although there likely isn’t that many spots remaining.
Pereira also gave an explanation for what attracted Benfica to the City of Terrace specifically;
" We were in discussions and I mentioned how large our soccer organization in Terrace is, including the surrounding communities like Prince Rupert, Kitimat, Smithers and even the whole Bulkley Valley. But we’re also attracting players from Prince George, Edmonton, Kamloops and Vernon. And they’re all coming because they’re either Portuguese or they understand how big Benfica is. We have a large diversity in our communities and there’s people coming from everywhere to this camp"
CFTK-TV got the chance to hear from one of the directors of Euro Football Exchange, Elijah Choudhary, who provided some background on how Benfica started putting on these Canadian camps;
“For the first few years, we were taking players and local coaches to Portugal. And for the past 2 to 3 years, we’ve brought Benfica to Canada because our name is Euro Football Exchange. It’s all fun going there but we want to continue our relationship, and we do that by bringing talent to Canada.”
Benfica will also be running camps in Toronto, Calgary, Whitby and Winnipeg this year as well.