Mobile Phones used to Engage with Aspiring Football Players in the Developing World

London, 29th July 2008: ROK Entertainment Group, the mobile entertainment company, today announced its Global Soccer Star initiative has already conducted trials with more than 10,000 aspiring football players in Tanzania with a further 10,000 players due to be trialed in the next 4 weeks.

Launched in May 2008, Global Soccer Star (GSS) is designed to discover new football talent in the developing world and will roll-out to 10 more countries globally in 2009.

GSS uses mobile phones as the primary means of engaging and interacting with aspiring players.

The GSS initiative underway in Tanzania, co-sponsored by Vodacom, Motorola and South African Airways, will culminate in a 5 week ‘Boot Camp’ for the best 40 players trialed. In addition, live TV shows, broadcast across the country, are providing the public with the opportunity to vote for the best player to win an all-expenses paid course at a football academy in Europe with a real chance of being signed to a professional football club.

Commenting on the initiative, Laurence Alexander, Group CEO of ROK said “ROK’s innovative use of the mobile phone to engage with players is critical to the success of GSS. After all, not everyone in the developing world has a computer and even less have broadband internet, yet almost everyone either owns or has access to a mobile. As such, we are able to democratise the talent search to the widest possible mass of people using wholly appropriate technologies”.

Please click the link below to watch the highlights of the first Assessment Day: http://www.globalsoccerstar.com/en/africa/tanzania/view-vids.html?v=arusha_320_240