Manchester Sports Academy SL to play football in the Maldives
Two teams f rom Sri Lanka's Manchester Sports Academy namely Manchester Red and Manchester White flew to Maldives on Friday evening to take part in the Under-14 Milo Hulumale Sports School invitation Cup soccer tournament to be played in Male from November 26 to December 1.
Manchester Red is captained by Sumesh Salman of Hamza College, Mutwal and the White team is led by Rakeeb Razmin of Cresent International School. Both teams consist of 15 players each and hope to do well in the tournament. Both captains were optimist that their sides are excited to take part in this tournament and hope to do well. This is the first time teams from a football academy in Sri Lanka is taking part in an overseas tournament and all credit goes to the
Participating teams
Manchester Academy Red, BG Sports Club, Maziya Sports and Recreation, Club Eagles, Maldives Soccer Mates.
Manchester Academy White, Early Touch FA, Hulumale Sports School, Tips FC, Soccer Veterans Association of Maldives. founder president of Manch e s t e r Soccer Academy, Augustine George a former national player who inaugurated this academy just six months ago.
''The children are keen to take part in this tournament and they are a bit nervous as this will be their debut overseas tour. I am confident this side will produce good results. We started this academy with an aim of producing skillful soccerites in the future who could fit into the club teams and then to the national level. The parents of the children are giving their fullest support and the coaching staff is doing an untiring job to uplift the game',' said Augustine George prior to the departure to Maldives.
During this tour a Memorandum of Understanding is expected to be signed between Hulumale Sports School and Manch e s t e r Soccer Academy on Saturday which would enable both sides to exchange football development programs to uplift the skills of the children of both academies. The teams are accompanied by coaches Anton Wambeck, Priyantha Perera, Roshan Perera, Rahan Pradeep, and Manju Janaka. Army SC striker Mohamed Issadeen, also a coach at the academy, had to skip this tour as he is taking part in the Dialog Champions League in Sri Lanka.