The Club already have an international partnership with Lokomotiv Tashkent
Former Fleetwood Town player Garry Hargreaves will travel to China next week to coach young children from various age groups.Garry will coach young children from primary schools and soccer camps, and will spend two months out in Asia as the Club look to promote their brand.
The Club will be going into one of the world’s biggest markets at grassroots level, as they seek to expand their international presence.
He played for Town during the 1982/83 season and scored 19 goals in 22 appearances, whilst also playing professionally for teams in the USA, Finland and Sweden.
Ahead of his trip, he said: “I’m working in cohesion with Steve Bellis’ company, Kickworldwide, whilst also representing Fleetwood Town.
“I’ll be going into schools and soccer camps in China to help the young players, and it’s something I’ve always enjoyed as I did it when I used to play abroad.
“I’ve been working in business with the Club for the past few years and it’s an opportunity for me to try and get back into the game.
“I’m hopeful it will lead to other things and will also allow coaches from Fleetwood to go out to China in the future and represent the Club.”
Steve Bellis from Kickworldwide believes Garry will gain an enormous amount of experience from the trip, but feels the Club will be the main benefactor.
“It’s great for Garry in terms of the experience he’ll get and it’s great for the Chinese in terms of the experience he’ll be able to share with them.
“I think the biggest benefactor here is the football club though. It’s taking the Fleetwood brand into a huge market and a part of China where they haven’t seen many English clubs.
“The President of China is the first to actually acknowledge that you have to build football from grassroots level.
“He’s provided the finance and all the impetus for all the cities in China to look at developing football in their schools.
“It’s great for us that we’ve obviously for a presence out there, and it’s great for Fleetwood that they have qualified coaches available to go out there and help to meet the needs of the Chinese.”
The Club already have an international partnership with Lokomotiv Tashkent in Uzbekistan, and CEO Steve Curwood is looking forward to gaining benefits from China.
He added: “We have a number of developments taking shape overseas, and China is another area where are looking at exploring.
“Garry will give us a good insight as to how it all looks on the ground over there, and with Steve from Kickworldwide’s wealth of experience in the country we are able to take our brand to this part of the world.”