Rookies triumph in Msowoya U-14 tourney
Rookies Young Juve beat Makata Primary School 1-0 at MDC Stadium in Blantyre to win Alick Msowoya Under-14 tournament on New Year’s Eve.
The entertaining match lived up to its billing as prospective stars showed a lot of promise.
Makata should blame themselves for missing chances, including a penalty gifted Young Juve the title through Victor Kumanda’s goal early in the second half.
They underlined their dominance when Misheck Billiat was named Player of the Tournament.
In his remarks, PlaySoccer Malawi director Patricio Kulemeka described this year’s tournament as stiffer than the previous two editions, which he said shows that the impact of the K6.5 million tournament in Ndirande.
“Looking at today’s final, our slogan that says Play for Fun, Learn for Life proved true as both teams had a mission to accomplish while enjoying the game,” he said.
Kulemeka applauded lawyer Msowoya and his family for the continued sponsorship.
“We would like to thank our sponsor as the tournament has been contributing to the development of players since 2017 when it was launched,” he said.
On his part, Msowoya said he is impressed that the tournament is living up to his expectations.
“This has been the most successful competition since it was launched considering that there was stiff competition among the teams and for the first, there was a women’s football team category,” he said.
“We need to encourage youngsters to exploit their potential in both sports and academic because we cannot have a spectacular academic achievement in class if we cannot have a spectacular achievement in sports. In other countries you need to have spectacular skills in sports to get a scholarship to study at a university,” he said.
Msowoya promised to continue sponsoring the tournament to complete the first seven-year cycle.
All the 15 teams—five girls and 10 boys—received a new set of uniform. Champions in boys’ category also received K150 000, runners-up pocketed K120 000, third-placed Chitsime Primary got K100 000 while in the girls category, champions Ndirande Hill Secondary School received K75 000 while runners-up Namalimwe Primary got K60 000.
