Two members of Real Madrid’s coaching staff will conduct a two-day clinic in  Phnom Penh on November 3 for 70 boys and girls from the Centre for Children’s Happiness, one of the five partners of the non-profit Happy Football Cambodia Australia, the backbone of the country’s Homeless World Cup initiatives for the past five years.

The HFCA played the role of facilitator in chalking up this program, the financial backing for which comes from Real sponsors YKK Holdings Asia.

“We are happy to welcome coaches from one of the world’s leading football clubs. We had two coaches from Italy’s Inter Milan conducting similar clinics four years ago,” HFCA co-founder Paraic Grogan told the Post.

According to organisers, part of the program includes Real Madrid kits for the participants.

When Inter Milan’s Gabrieze Raspelli and Fabrizio Piccareta visited Phnom Penh in 2008 for a hugely popular clinic for underprivileged youngsters, there was unprecedented media attention worldwide.

Five of the players who attended that clinic went on to represent Cambodia in the Kingdom’s first attempt at the Homeless World Cup in Melbourne the same year.

Since then Cambodia has been sending teams to the annual tournament with the wholehearted support for these missions coming from the HFCA.

Cambodia put up its best ever performance at the HWC earlier this month in Mexico City, finishing 32nd out of 43 nations.

To contact the reporter on this story: H S Manjunath at [email protected]