International Football Academy’s Under 12 (The Project) team had a very successful experience in the Netherlands from the 30th August to the 3rd September.
During their stay the team represented Malta in a most honourable way placing second in a top international tournament.
The Burgundy Battlers were grouped against the likes of Hammarby, Genk, PSV Eindhoven, AZ Alkmaar and Odense and placed joint first in their group and met the mighty Ajax Amsterdam in the semifinal.
The Semifinal was a very fierce encounter which saw International Football Academy play a great game and victory over Ajax ensued with a final score of 1-0.
In the final IFA fell short against one of the top Academies of the Netherlands, AZ Alkmaar loosing 1-0 but hitting the crossbar in the last minute of the match.
The International tournament tool place in Neede and was organised by the local football club at their facilities. Other teams taking part in this tournament were the likes of Bayer Leverkusen, Royal Antwerp and Twente. During the stay, IFA also played a number of friendly matches against top sides and also had very positive displays and results. The team lead by Nicholas Baldacchino and Nardu Farrugia hailed from a number of different academies from our Malta.
This project lead by IFA has seen a group of boys work in a professional way for the last 3 years, taking physical tests, eating right, having matches analysed and getting top quality training. This result confirms that we have great quality in our young players and under professional guidance they can compete at the very highest level.
This tournament follows tournaments in Parma, the Netherlands, the Atzore Islands a tour of the UK playing against top PRO Academies which saw this group have great successes throughout.
