Benjamin Lee of Ashburton has his sights on becoming a professional footballer and is heading to Germany to get closer to his dream.
The 15-year-old will attend the FS Sport Academy. It’s an elite sports academy in Dusseldorf.
He was one of just 14 players of his age accepted for this year’s intake.
He leaves on Monday.
‘‘I had to apply and there were only 14 spots. It will help me achieve my goals,’’ he said.
His days will be filled with training, game time and health and wellbeing education, including sports nutrition.
He will still need to do year 11 academic study, offsite to the football academy. Benjamin, who finished year 10 at Ashburton College last year, speaks Korean as his first language, English and German. He did not know of others attending the academy, but said it had a high success rate of getting players into professional teams. ‘‘I want to show what I am made of,’’ he said. ‘‘I just want to show that if you put your work into it, you can make it.’’
The football-mad teen has played for Mid Canterbury Football’s Red Devilz since 2020.
He preferred striker position on field and had a good strike rate for three years scoring more than 23 goals a season.
‘‘I just love people scoring, and the atmosphere on the field. Each tackle when you win them, you just have this proud moment,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s just my passion.’’
Last season he was moved to defence by coaches Mark Abernethy and Carl Gourdie. It was the first time the team had made it into Mainland Football first division; they started in third division but were put up after the first round.
Benjamin may not have enjoyed the position as much, but the team was short on defenders and it pushed him on field.
‘‘I had to do it for the team. We came third in first division.’’
Benjamin has been doing cardio work and weight lifting ahead of his move to Germany and was keen to make his parents Leigh and Kyoung Woo proud.
Leigh is a teacher at Ashburton College and Kyoung Woo works at Synlait.
Leigh said ever since Benjamin was old enough to walk he had a football by his side and a dream to play the game. He joined a professional football team in Jeju, South Korea when he was eight-years-old and has been playing ever since, she said.
She said the chance to train at the elite sports academy was an amazing opportunity.
‘‘He is one of 14 to be chosen of his age at this academy, however it is not a scholarship and it will cost a lot of money to support him for the year in Germany,’’ she said.
The couple had turned to crowdfunding via Givealittle to help with some costs, including travel, training, boarding fees, food and football equipment.
She was thankful to friends, family and the community for their support so far, and also to Rotary Club of Ashburton Charitable Trust which had given a donation of $1000 towards costs.
Despite being nervous about his travels – and costs – Leigh said attending the academy was a lifetime opportunity for Benjamin to secure his dream.
‘‘We couldn’t say no,’’ she said.
