By Benjamin Millar
Australia’s brightest rising soccer stars are being enticed to the inner-west as Melbourne Victory unveils a new soccer academy to be built in Footscray and Maribyrnong.
The champion A-League club has revealed its plans for new training and development facilities to be spread across sites at Footscray Park and Robert Barrett Reserve near Highpoint.
The facilities will include five pitches for training for the club’s men’s, women’s and youth teams.
By 2020, Footscray Park will have three new floodlit pitches, including a show pitch, as well as six unisex changerooms, warm-up facilities and undercover seating for 600 spectators.
Two new training pitches will be created at Robert Barrett Reserve by next April, to support the Victory’s expanding women’s and youth programs.
Nearby Maribyrnong College will also partner with the academy.
Victory chairman Anthony Di Pietro said the academy, the club’s single biggest investment to date, will be the best in the country.
“It’s going to be what we believe is Australia’s best footballing academy, producing young boys and girls that are going to be the Matildas and Socceroos of the future,” he said.
The Footscray Park location helps cement Melbourne Victory’s partnership with Victoria University’s Sports Science program.
Blue Light Victoria, which works to build bridges between young people and Victoria Police, will also be at the Footscray Park site.
