Created in 2012 in the city of Limbe, ADISA launched its operations in football through its first club called Africa Dream FC in the national football federation’s (FECAFOOT) Fako Departmental League, securing a quick qualification to the South West Regional League in the same year. Africa Dream FC’s senior team featured in 4 FECAFOOT seasons until 2016 when new approaches to our core strategy emerged with a chief aim to inspire, support and groom much younger athletes, enabling them secure enough time to grow to be all they can be. These approaches permitted us to recruit down to 7-year-old children and enabled the creation of satellite centres which saw ADISA expand across the South West Region.
By opening 3 Recruitment and Training Centres (RTCs) in 2014 in the towns of Limbe, Buea and Tiko, ADISA became the fastest growing and the largest sports academy in Cameroon in terms of number of trainees with more than 250 trainees in the 3 RTCs. Still in 2014, we added Track Athletics and Basketball to the training program and later in 2015 we introduced Floorball. However, Football and Track Athletics remain the principal focus. In 2015, we secured a grant for our work with grassroots football from Total Change Missions in the Netherlands founded by former Indomitable Lions vice-captain Eyong Enoh, to support our work with the youths.
Our drive for change in the industry brought remarkable improvements in both our development model and our capabilities as a social entrepreneur. Within two years from creating the 3 RTCs, Africa Dream FC U12 boys’ team won both the 2016 and 2017 editions of the Brasseries Top Cup in Limbe. This prompted several conversations on the need for the boys to find expression at an international platform. By the end of 2017, a grant from the Tony Elumelu Foundation was secured for Africa Dream FC and this greatly enhanced our efforts in 2018 to launch an overseas tour project. An Africa Dream FC U14 team finally travelled in April 2019 for the Dubai Super Cup along with 114 teams from around the world and returned to Cameroon with a finalist medal of honour.
