Zakiyah Lee could potentially accompany National Academy team-mate and Berkeley schoolmate Arnezha Astwood at a football camp at the Reading Academy in England this summer.

The promising PHC Zebras winger was yesterday awarded $4,000 via the Kenneth “Smokey” Thompson Athlete Sponsorship Award scheme, which is a partnership between Partner Re and the Bermuda Football Association now in its second year.

The BFA has yet to determine which academy Lee will eventually attend, but is considering that he joins Astwood for a weeklong camp at Reading during the summer break.

“We have the opportunity of Zakiyah to either go off to Reading or Bournemouth Academy and we also have an independent academy that we are thinking of as well that might be a good placement for Zakiyah,” Mark Wade, the BFA president, said. “We also have Arnezha Astwood who was just given the National Junior Athlete Scholarship so the idea is that they travel together and compliment each other as they are on this journey. The training experience will give them a taste of what it’s like at a professional academy and continue their football education.”

The Kenneth “Smokey” Thompson Athlete Sponsorship Award is awarded annually to a National Academy player selected by the National Academy coaching staff.

Partner Re have committed to the scholarship award scheme to honour the legacy of their late colleague Thompson and his passion for football by giving back to the community.

Lee, 16, is the second Berkeley student after Jadae Steede-Hill to receive the scholarship award.