Football Soham Town Rangers are offering youngsters the chance to get a foot on the sporting ladder with a new scholarship programme.

The club, which plies its trade in the Ryman League Division One North, is looking for 20 football players to take part in a two-year football and education programme.

The students will train and study during the week at the home of Soham Town Rangers and be able to play in the midweek floodlit league and at the weekend for Soham’s first team or reserves.

Training will be taken and overseen by former Cambridge United player and current Soham manager Steve Fallon and his assistant Ian Hart, as well as Indie Darar, who is Soham’s under 18s manager and a goalkeeping coach.

From the crop of 20 scholars, five lucky candidates will be offered a further three year contract and given the chance to carry on their education and training with the club.

Those not offered a further three years will still be able to use their qualifications gained at the club to continue coaching or go forward to university for further stidy.

Staff teaching the scholarship will include UEFA licensed coaches, a fitness coach and physio.

The students will study on a BTEC Level 3 course and will need to achieve GCSE grades at C or above in both maths and English.

The students will also have the opportunity to complete their FA Level and their FA Level 2 in year two.

As part of this programme, each player will still be available to play for their Sunday youth teams and each manager or coach from the respective clubs would be invited to attend both first and youth team training or matches to get a better insight to senior football coaching and management.

At the end of the two year football and education programme, five three year contracts will be available for the five fortunate players.

To coincide with the contract, each player will go on to study on a university programme either in sports coaching, sports science or football management and train as a full time football player.

During the three year university programme, each student will also gain experience working within the club’s youth setup either at under 7-11s or under 12-16s and also have the opportunity to gain experience at a professional club.

If you are interested in applying, contact the club on 01353 720732 or visit

www.pitchero.com/clubs/sohamtownrangersfc and complete an application form.

The club will be in touch regarding an interview and trial, which will be held on Friday, February 20.