Amongst the boys football school teams, only 16 teams advanced to the next stage of try-outs which included Modern Knowledge School, Jaffari Institute, The British School, Al Noor School, Al Hekma International School, New Vision School, Al Naseem School, Abdulrahman Al Nasser School, Gudaibiya School, Ahmed Al Fateh School, Al Imam Ali School, Hamad Town Secondary School, Isa Town Secondary School, Emam Al Gazali School, Al Farabi School and Ebdaa School.
The Manchester United Foundation coaches, Lami Sonola and Ben Charlton appreciated the enthusiasm shown by female footballers and were happy with the players’ tactical knowledge of the game and their eagerness to learn something new.
“We witnessed a different level of performance today amongst the girls, many of them played like professionals while a few seemed like getting the grip of the game. However, all of them showed the same level of enthusiasm you would expect from experienced players. I particularly liked the players from Sacred Heart School who supported each other very well and demonstrated great passion for the game,” Manchester United Foundation Coach Ben Charlton said.
“We were awesome on the pitch and we ended up winning the tournament and the match against British School. This was a great experience and we hope as a team we were able to impress the Manchester United Foundation coaches,” Anastasia Makhlouf, year 8 student of St. Christopher’s girls football team said.
“We had lots of fun playing with other teams on a competing front. We are happy with our performance today since we were the first to score a goal against St. Christopher’s. We wish we had relaxed a bit more and played more confidently, maybe then we would have won the tournament. It’s been a great learning for future experience,” Carmen Carritt and Georgia Sim, year 8 students of the British School football team, said.
At the end of the grueling two-day inter-school tournament, Manchester United Foundation coaches would pick top performers in boys and girls teams for Best Player, Best Striker, Best Goalkeeper and top three performing schools, in addition to 22 players who will go on to win a week-long professional football training trip to Manchester, courtesy of VIVA Bahrain.