City coach Mark O'Connor is flying off this weekend to check out Salif Diao's soccer school in Salif's home country of Senegal.

Midfielder Salif has packed lots of activities into Mark's four day trip, so he gets the full experience of what the soccer school has to offer.

O'Connor will be doing a touch of talent spotting, watching the young lads train as well as a couple of games.

Commenting on the trip Mark said, "I'm thrilled by the opportunity to have the experience of seeing Salif's soccer school in Senegal.

"I've been to Barcelona and Inter Milan so it will be interesting to compare both the standard of players and the facilities available."

Mark was also keen to point out that Salif is not the only Senegalise player to make it in the English game.

"There have been a number of players from Senegal playing in the Premiership in the last couple of seasons, the likes of Amdy Faye at Charlton, Henri Camara at Wigan, Pape Bouba Diop at Fulham, El Hadji Diouf at Bolton, Diomansy Kamara at West Brom and obviously not forgetting Salif himself."

Mark clearly has a lot of respect for Salif who puts a good deal of his time and effort into football in his home country.

"It is a shame more players aren't like him. Today's game tends to breed selfish players and its all credit to him that someone of his stature is putting something back into the game," he added.