Scottish giants sending coaches to Wanganui youth training camp | Manawatu-Wanganui Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Manawatu-Wanganui

 There's really only one football club for Wanganui man Michael Fold.

Now that club is helping Fold realise a dream.

When he was a youngster, Fold lived "right beside Ibrox Stadium".

Ibrox, of course, is the famous home of The Rangers Football Club in Glasgow.

Now, you can maybe try to take the Glasgow out of Michael Fold (no, not really), but you can't take Ibrox out.

"I've got Rangers tattoos, I've always got a Rangers t-shirt or cap on, my son's middle name is Ibrox - that's how devoted I am to Rangers," said Fold.

And he produced a Rangers flag to prove it.

Now he and friend and fellow Rangers fan James Newton are just a few weeks away from Rangers providing five coaching staff to run a schoolboys/young players' camp (eight to 21-year-olds) in Wanganui. There will be a prize offering of a week's training at Rangers' training ground, Murray Park, for either players selected as having the right kind of potential by the Rangers coaches themselves, or for one selected by local coaches from the Wanganui school.

The camp will cater for up to 100 youngsters from the southern half of the North Island - and the Wanganui area in particular. It's anticipated that 70 will be from the Wanganui area and 30 from outside. There will also be one evening coach education clinic (with a minimum of 30 coaches).

Price per player is around $280, and $50 for coaches. All players fees are to be received by Rangers Football Club two months before the camp.

They're looking for more sponsors. Rangers has promised a ratio of one coach to every 20 participants, and some costs have to be paid. Auckland City Football Club is also holding a camp as part of the trip and there could be one in Wellington.
 

Fold's motivation for chasing The Rangers Soccer Schools programme is simple - he wants a better deal for Wanganui youngsters, rather than have them leave the area to improve their football. It all started when he was in Australia about three years ago, and had a chance meeting with an Aussie who said  Rangers coaches were about to come to Australia.

"I was talking to him about the talent we have in Wanganui and said the kids had nowhere to go - so all the good football players eventually leave," Fold said.

"He jacked me up with a contact for Greg Statt, the overseas development officer at Ibrox in Glasgow, and we got talking.

"It had been a hard slog to get the guys to come to Wanganui.

"But the All Whites make the World Cup and all of a sudden they're interested.  We've managed to jack up coaches from Rangers, not first team coaches, but certified coaches.
 

"We've prepared a business plan asking business' to sponsor this, we've set up a non-profit organisation, we just want to put everything back into junior football in the city.

"I've been playing football in Wanganui for six-seven years, and I can tell you we have some fabulous youngsters coming up."

Unfortunately though, he said, they are then lost to clubs in Palmerston North, Dunedin and elsewhere.

Fold says that by bringing Rangers to the city, "it starts something - and they follow through with everything".

There will be a little scouting going on, as well.

"The main purpose of the camps is to get Rangers coaches out here, but no coach worth his salt would be doing his job if he wasn't looking for a golden nugget. They're always on the look-out for talent. "Two kids were picked up at a recent Australian camp and given trials at Murray Park.

"And what we've managed to get is, regardless of how many we have at the camp, that one is picked to go back - and as well, a representative of each Wanganui club will be watching. We will also get to pick one kid to go back to Scotland."

Rangers Soccer Schools have been held in Australia, the United States, Canada, Germany, Azerbaijan and Trinidad and Tobago.