African footballers, looking to attract talent scouts and clubs, can create a professional CV in minutes and for free, thanks to a Ghanaian start-up.
The Kaazi app is designed to safely connect football players across Africa to potential recruiters online. Now, players with a Kaazi account can use their profile data to create a one-page professional football CV on their phone or desktop.
“Most CV builders are made for business executives not football players, so they don’t collect information relevant to football players or recruiters,” said Kaazi founder and ceo Nana Yaw Oppong-Mensah.
“Our CV builder is made with football players and football recruiters in mind, so a player can add niche football information like playing positions, weight, height, birth year and highlight video links. Players can also add their physical, technical, tactical and social/psychological skills information which are all missing in most CV builders and CVs.”
A first for Ghana
The CV builder feature is thought to be the first of its kind in Ghana and Africa, according to Nana Yaw, who first saw the potential after Kaazi was launched in 2021.
“We saw a player’s profile on Kaazi as a kind of football CV because a player profile captured most of the information a player CV needed and the link is shareable.
“After engaging with players in Ghana, we realised players where spending money, time and energy creating ‘traditional’ CVs - a pdf document that could also be printed.
“That was the trigger to create the ‘download CV’ feature, we realised we could take some pain away from the players and also establish a professional standard CV that can be accessible to all football players in Ghana and Africa.”
Bridging gaps
Football players have the option to download their CV, print it out and share it with recruiters. The feature is free until October 2022, after which there is likely to be a small charge on the number of downloads.
The feature is designed to bridge that gap and give players visibility, says Nana Yaw.
“This feature can improve the connection between football players in Africa and recruiters. Most football players in Africa currently don’t have professional football CVs and many spend long hours and money trying to design a professional one.”
Kaazi also documents stories of players and communities in Africa and its diaspora.
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