Jamaica’s Tyreek Magee was among 12 Digicel Kickstart players selected to attend Manchester City Football Academy as part of the Manchester Experience.

After a week of intense training and some inspiring performances, coaches were left to choose from 42 boys across the Caribbean and Central America.

"I’m happy that I was rewarded by being selected. I can’t explain that feeling right now, I feel so good," 16-year-old Magee told the Jamaica Observer after the closing ceremony at Sabina Park on Thursday.

"I learnt a lot [from the Manchester City academy coaches] and they taught me how to take on defenders and beat them quickly and then get off shots on goal," said the national Under-20 and Jamaica College Manning Cup player.

Alan Dixon, the City Football Schools Project Manager and Digicel Kickstart Academy lead coach, said he was generally pleased with the displays.

"It was a great experience this past week. We worked with the boys in 14 different market places here in Jamaica. We’re very happy with the ability we saw on and off the pitch. They’ve shown good attitude and that they wanted to learn, and we introduced them to a variety of practices and the methodology and philosophy of Manchester Football Club.

"The ones who were selected were because of what they showed on the pitch in terms of being comfortable in possession, playing the right way and having the right attitude and the desire to improve. I’ve been really pleased with the week," Dixon said.

"What we brought in this year is a little bit extra. We brought in the scouts from New York [one of Manchester City’s base] to look at the boys and how well they are performing, and we had more persons participating than last year," said Kamal Powell, Digicel’s senior sponsorship and development manager.

Last year, six Academy players made the trip to Manchester to attend the premier league club’s elite training and youth development facility.

That positive impact encouraged Digicel to extend the opportunity to 12 players for the experience later this year.

In June 2015, Digicel announced a regional partnership with Manchester City, a member of the wider City Football Group (CFG). The partnership enables Digicel to benefit from CFG’s expansive footballing expertise to deliver its grass-roots football programmes across the region.

CFG is the owner of a number of football-related businesses with global relevance, including professional football clubs, academies and marketing companies.

— Sanjay Myers