Vodacom Tanzania, in association with Motorola, are sponsoring a ROK initiative entitled Global Soccer Star (GSS), which is designed to find real football talent in Africa. The project starts in Tanzania in June, and will be implemented nationwide, in collaboration with the Tanzania Football Federation.
Ephraim Mafuru, Vodacoms Tanzania Head of Sponsorship and Communication, says the initiative will develop footballing talent in the country, and has called upon the young of Tanzania to take part in the initiative.
Under the rules of the competition, aspiring footballers in Tanzania will be invited to text their registration request to the shortcode 15500, explains Mafuru. They will then receive an SMS message, for free, containing a link to a football skills training WAP site, and a unique PIN code that they can use to gain entry to a regional assessment day. The website www.globalsoccerstar.com and the WAP site provide further information on how they can progress through the programme to win a scholarship to the GSS academy in Marbella, Spain. 
GSS will host Regional Assessment Days in June for up to 25,000 players aged between 16 and 22, in cities across Tanzania, including Arusha, Mwanza, Mbeya, Dar es Salam and Zanzibar. 
The best 30 players selected by the GSS Professional Assessment Team will then assemble in Dar es Salam for a 5-weekend-long Football Camp, where the players will be put through their paces, culminating in a match against a team nominated by the Tanzanian Football Federation.
Motorola is supporting the initiative by preloading Global Soccer Star content, consisting of  sequential training images in local Swahili, on to 1GB memory cards, which will be included  with the Motorola W230 handset.
Motorola are very excited to be participating in this extraordinary search for one very talented young soccer player and, furthermore, to be able to extend professional soccer training content to the whole country, says Joanne Doyle, Motorola Head of Marketing for East & Central Africa.
Motorola, in collaboration with Vodacom Tanzania, will sell handsets through various Vodacom distribution channels and one lucky winner will receive a free ticket to attend a regional soccer match where the Vodacom Tanzania Premier League will play against the Vodacom Soccer Academy All Star XI.
GSS is also partnered with the Tanzania Broadcasting Company (TBC 1) to produce a 13-week TV show highlighting the search for the new soccer star, with members of the public voting throughout the process to select the overall winner.
ROK CEO Laurence Alexander says:
Players from Africa have graced the Premiership in the UK, as well as European soccer leagues, and we are excited to be searching for the next Didier Drogba using mobile phones as the primary means to engage with the aspiring footballers.