Youth Football Tournament - Nghe An Newspaper Cup: Festival of Nghe An's childhood

(Baonghean) - In these June days, in the atmosphere of International Children's Day (June 1) and Vietnam Revolutionary Press Day (June 21), the 21st Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth Football Tournament officially kicked off, creating a useful and interesting playground for children during the summer.

Through 20 times of organization, the Tournament has received the response of many parents, schools, Party committees, authorities, sectors, businesses and a large number of fans. With love and heart for children, passion for football, responsibility for the sports movement of the province, the attention of leaders at all levels, the hearts of sponsors, have created conditions for the teams as well as the Organizing Committee to build the Tournament to be increasingly large-scale and professional.

Delegates took souvenir photos with the two winning teams of the 2016 season.

The Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth Football Tournament is not only a place to discover young football talents, a useful playground, but also an opportunity for them to practice themselves in the spirit of "Honest, noble, and united sports". Therefore, personnel work is always carried out seriously to ensure that the children have a healthy playground. Since 2013, the Organizing Committee has invited SLNA Club - a unit with a lot of experience in selecting young players to participate and the inspection process is supervised and advised by officers of the Department of Administrative Management of Social Order (PC 64) of the Provincial Police; verify and handle arising suspicions and complaints; resolutely and strictly handle violations.

According to experts, the organization of the Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth Football Tournament is increasingly tight and creates a strong spread, the professional quality is increasingly high. In particular, in addition to creating a spread to promote the development of the sports movement, the tournament is also a place to discover and select many talents for the football of the province in particular and the country in general.

This season, Dien Chau football team has received heavy investment and is a strong candidate for the championship. Photo courtesy

From the Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth Football Tournament, many localities across the country have had a model of organizing provincial-level youth football tournaments; districts and cities in Nghe An have organized youth football tournaments at ward, commune and district levels. Every year, through the tournament, talented players are selected for SLNA Club's gifted classes. Among them, many of them, after training, become SLNA team 1 athletes and are called to the national team.

The good news spread far and wide, famous training centers in the country also sent coaches to monitor and recruit young football talents such as: Viettel, Hanoi, VPF, Hoang Anh Gia Lai... Thanks to that, after 20 seasons, hundreds of players participating in the Nghe An Newspaper Cup Football Tournament have matured, wearing the jerseys of the National Team, Song Lam Club and national, first and second division football clubs nationwide. Some famous stars include: Cong Vinh, Nhu Thuat, Quang Tinh, Dinh Dong, Van Binh, Trong Hoang, Cong Phuong, Nguyen Manh, Minh Duc, Ho Tuan Tai, Que Ngoc Hai...

Nguyen Manh, a star who grew up from the Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth Football Tournament. Photo courtesy.

In preparation for the 2017 season, localities have organized youth football tournaments, going to schools to search for "talents" and selecting teams to participate in the tournament. Although the preparation process of the football teams took place in hot weather conditions, sometimes the outdoor temperature reached 420C, it could not stop the enthusiasm of teachers and students of the football teams from the highlands of the "fire pan of Indochina" such as Ky Son, Tuong Duong, Con Cuong, Anh Son... or the football teams from the dry, cracked rice fields, the Lam River alluvial flats that burned the feet such as Yen Thanh, Thanh Chuong, Hung Nguyen, Nam Dan...

Participating in this year's tournament, the whole province has 31 football teams, including 18 children's teams and 13 youth teams. With the number of registered teams, the 21st Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth Football Tournament - 2017 attracts more and more participation from localities in the province, creating a healthy and interesting playground for teenagers and children during the summer.

In order for the tournament to become more widespread and successful, in addition to the efforts of the Organizing Committee, there are also significant contributions from the hearts for children from sponsors such as: Saigon - Nghe Tinh Beer Joint Stock Company; Golden City Joint Stock Company; Nghe An Agricultural Materials Joint Stock Corporation; Tecco Investment Corporation; Tan Nam Construction Joint Stock Company; Intimex Vietnam Joint Stock Company - Nghe An Branch; VNPT, Nghe An Post Office, Dong Luc Joint Stock Company, Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam - Nghe An Branch; Children's Support Fund, Provincial Association for Promotion of Education, TH Food Chain Joint Stock Company, Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (Vinamilk)... From those sources of sponsorship, to increase the attractiveness of the tournament and encourage the competitive spirit of the teams, this year the Organizing Committee decided to increase the reward for the winning teams.

With such careful preparation, the Organizing Committee believes that the players and teams will give the audience beautiful football moves and eye-catching matches. The young players will have a joyful, rewarding summer with many memories. Parents and football fans of Nghe An will live in the summer days of "eating football, sleeping football" to watch the performances and talent competitions of the future football "stars".

Pham Thi Hong Toan
Member of the Provincial Party Committee,
Editor-in-Chief of Nghe An Newspaper,
Head of the Organizing Committee