A recent trip to England for a specially selected group of young Thai players may well have planted the seeds to a few new careers in professional football, as well as given them all memories of their time at the Manchester United Academy to cherish.
It was at the end of the sixth episode of the nationwide Honda Red Champion campaign that 30 talented Thai students from six schools -- one each from the five regions of the country plus another from the three strife-torn southern provinces -- were selected for the annual exercise.
The project was organised under the auspices of the Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC) and sponsored by AP Honda with the aim of spotting talented young Thai players.
The OBEC and AP Honda selected secondary schoolboys aged between 13 and 18 years old following the sixth football skill championship. Participants in the championship were judged on the quality of their juggling, dribbling, passing, finishing and heading skills.
And they have all now returned home after undergoing a five-day training course in England, carrying certificates from English Premier League giants Manchester United which bear testimony to their skills.
Earlier this month, at the guests' lounge at Old Tafford, home of Manchester United, these 30 budding Thai footballers mingled with the English club's staff coaches and received their certificates.
After the presentation, former Manchester United defender Mikael Silvestre, who played for the Red Devils from 1999-2008 and was part of the team's success at many major tournaments, including the Premier League, FA Cup and Uefa Champions League, spoke to the young Thai visitors.
Silvestre said: "We are very pleased that these young players from the Honda Red Champion project have gained a lot of experience from the training course here and have learned the basic football skills.
"However, there are some weak points but now that they have attended the training course, I believe that these players will use what they learned throughout the five-day training to develop themselves in Thailand and build up strong football skills in the future."
Former Derby County midfielder Robin van der Laan, who is now a staff coach with Manchester United, was with the Thai players during the training course at the AON Training Centre (ATC) and advised the visitors to keep on training hard for the future.
"I would like these young Thais to keep on training hard when they go back to Thailand," said Van der Laan.
"The short training course will help them develop football skills, such as playing as a team, thinking and acting fast and moving the ball forward.
"They must be ready to communicate with their teammates when they are on the pitch together. All of these are the basic skills that every player must possess."
Suchart Arunsaengroj, vice-president and director of AP Honda, said: "We created this project with the aim of helping develop football in the country.
"We would like to see children focus more on basic skills that are the foundation of a career as a professional player. This is the main point in pushing themselves to be professional football players in the future and I am very happy to see the young Thai players think that it is important."
Besides the short training course, the 30 young players also toured Old Trafford from its gates to the locker rooms of the first team before visiting the Manchester United Museum which exhibits trophies won by the Red Devils.
They also visited the National Football Museum in Manchester where historic items from around the world, such as national teams' jerseys, including the one Argentina's Diego Maradona's wore during the 1986 World Cup, are on display.
Suchart added that the seventh Honda Red Champion project will have a different format and the criteria for selection will also change, but the target of AP Honda will remain the same, that is to help the Thai players acquire good basic football skills to help them to become professionals in the future.
"We do not expect that this project will help the Thai players to play in the World Cup finals because it cannot happen immediately, but the most important thing is that they must have good basic skills at the beginning like other world class players," he said.
"If they keep on training hard, they can learn more football skills and that will bring them closer to their dreams. I would like every young player to think about this."
The Red Champion experience will remain forever etched in the memories of its young participants, some of whom may even become future stars for the Kingdom.