Ittipolchana puts in fine performance but team go out in qualifiers
>> MOSCOW: Thailand’s Ittipolchana Kaewsawad participated in the sixth Gazprom Football for Friendship International Championship held at the Sapsan Arena Stadium here this week.
Ittipolchana, who played as a defender, represented the African Elephants team alongside players from Nepal, Swaziland, Sao Tome and Principe, Andorra and Puerto Rico.
Even though the Thai played extremely well, his team fell short in the qualifying round.
Speaking about his participation, Ittipolchana said: “I am happy to have been given the opportunity to participate in the Football for Friendship programme in Moscow. The programme has helped me to make a lot of friends from different countries and play football with them.
“The three-day training programme before the championship has helped me to improve and learn new football skills which I will use in my future matches.
“The championship was very exciting and I am happy to have performed well for my team. This has been an amazing experience and I look forward to participating in more tournaments in the future”
In the training camps, called the International Friendship Camp, the young ambassadors were sorted into teams of different cultures and interacted with kids from 211 countries and regions.
The training days also focused on ecological initiatives, supported by the F4F.
These initiatives, which were explained through special lectures, were aimed to make the young ambassadors aware about the environmental problems.