South Africa’s future soccer stars gave it their all at Volkswagen’s 2019 Junior Masters tournament. The Strijdom Park VW boys team and Hatfield VW Melrose girls team battled it out against many other teams to come out top for the chance to compete in the world’s largest international youth football tournament.
“There was an excellent display of talent this past weekend amongst the players, which ended in two exciting finals” said Dean Furman, midfielder for SuperSport United in the Premier League.
The tournament took place at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, from 5 to 7 December 2019. The teams were sponsored by Volkswagen Dealerships from around the country. Sixteen U/12 boys’ teams and six U/15 girls’ teams went head to head to for the ultimate winning spots.
The winning girl’s and winning boy’s teams will jet off to the Gothia Cup in Sweden, in July 2020, to represent South Africa. Each year, around 1700 teams from 80 nations take part with 4500 games played on 110 fields.
The entire trip to Europe will be sponsored by Volkswagen South Africa and is an opportunity for the winners to compete against international rivals.
“Soccer represents unity in South Africa. It transcends class, race and religion. The Volkswagen Junior Masters Soccer Tournament is a platform for talented boys and girls to not only find sports opportunities but to create community around one of the country’s most loved games. We are incredibly proud of all of the competitors and can’t wait to see these exceptionally talented teams represent South Africa in the Gothia Cup,” concluded Andile Dlamini, Head of Group Communications: Volkswagen Group South Africa.
