FC Bayern Youth Cup: India finish fifth

The final of the inaugural FC Bayern Youth Cup was played yesterday (May 24) at the clubs Allianz Arena infront of 800 mainly school students with teams from Austria, China, India, Italy and host nation Germany taking part. The FCB Youth Cup is for boys in the 14 to 16 years age group with country/regional qualifiers held over the last few months to decide who would represent their country at the finals.

The format of the FC Bayern Youth Cup finals was round robin and teams of eight players out of squads of 10 took on each other with each team playing four matches of 20 minutes duration each. In the end the Italians won ahead of the Austrians, who both finished on the same number of points. China, Germany and India finished in third, fourth and fifth respectively.

The Indian team finished last following two draws and two defeats in their round robin league matches though the Indian boys played a good tournament, but after losing 0-1 in a close encounter against Germany they drew two-all against China. A talented India missed numerous scoring opportunities in the tournament which in the end resulted in the Indians finishing last, but the experience should help the boys in their overall football development.

The Indian representative team was put together from close to 1,100 boys who showed themselves to the FC Bayern Munich scouts at the Indian-leg of the FC Bayern Youth Cup in New Delhi and Mumbai last year before the best 10 were chosen from a 11 A-Side match ahead of the India vs Bayern Munich friendly on January 10 in New Delhi.

The FC Bayern Youth Cup has been made possible by FCB partners and sponsors adidas, Audi, Lufthansa, Trentino, UniCredit and Yingli Solar.