Durban — Northwood School, in Durban North, hosted the first-ever Football Club Bayern Youth Cup in Southern Africa, on Sunday.
The FC Bayern Youth Cup is the world’s biggest and oldest international youth football tournament (series) by a football club.
Qhilika High School soccer team came out tops beating the Nqabakazulu High School team in the last deciding match.
Ndoda Ngcobo, the winning team’s coach said it was still unbelievable that they are champions of such a big tournament.
“It was our first time playing in such an organised tournament and even winning it. Our victory stems from the hard work and dedication these Umlazi boys have for soccer.”
Three boys from his team, including the goalkeeper, were selected to join FC Bayern Munich in Germany.
“I know they are going to excel; this has been their dream for a long time. Even us as champions we are still looking to improve for when the tournament comes back,” said Ngcobo.
Since this tournament’s introduction in 2012, it has been conducted yearly in co-operation with existing FC Bayern Munich partners in Brazil, China, India, Italy, Japan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Singapore, Thailand and the US.
Asanda Mbatha from BB section in Umlazi, who is one of the selected players, said: “I am still processing everything but I’m very excited and looking forward to the journey.”
The aim is to give children worldwide the chance to show their talent, irrespective of their social background.
FC Bayern Munich has been organising local selection tournaments with local partners since 2012. These can vary greatly in scope, from one-day events to nationwide qualifying tournaments lasting months with more than 10 000 players.
These tournaments lead to a national final in the participating country, at which an FC Bayern Munich representative selects the so-called national team, which consists of the ten best male players of the participating country aged 14 to 16. This team will travel to Munich in May to take part in the FC Bayern Youth Cup World Final and compete against the players of the other participating countries. The world final takes place annually in the Allianz Arena on the day following the last home match of FC Bayern.
The national teams already arrive a few days in advance to take part in a five-day training camp on Säbener Strasse and train with FC Bayern Munich youth coaches. In addition, players receive a comprehensive social programme.
Francisco Quinones who is the manager of International Youth Football at FC Bayern Munich was present to witness the Southern African leg of the tournament. He said the competition is simultaneously held in seven countries across the world. After the national championship, a pool of ten best players are selected to represent that country at the World Youth Tournament in Germany.
Northwood was proud to be the host venue for the tournament for the boys to “showcase their skills”.
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