13 September 2017

Over the summer break Abingdon pupils Will Wallis, Arun Sahota, Caleb Maijeh and Sam Dominic travelled to Gothenburg, Sweden with the South District Prep Schools’ Lions District Squads for the 2017 Gothia World Youth Cup. With around 1,800 teams from 82 countries, the Gothia Cup is the world’s biggest youth football tournament and as an event is larger than the Commonwealth Games.

Lower school pupil Sam Dominic played in one of the four Under-12 Prep School Lions’ Teams that qualified for the ‘A’ Competition, with Sam scoring a memorable hat-trick against Sweden in the group stages helping the team to qualify for the ‘B’ Play off knockout competition to finish in the last 16.

Current third years Will Wallis and Caleb Maijeh helped the Prep Schools Lions Under-14s team top their group in the competition’s opening pool stage, beating FC Angered from Sweden 3-1, then Austin Lonestars from USA 2-0 with Will Wallis making the scoresheet. Their team made it to the ‘A’ group playoffs only then to be defeated by Swedish home team 6-4 in the last 64.

Another current third year, goalkeeper Arun Sahota did not concede from open play all tournament with his team also qualifying for the ‘A’ Competition play offs. Their team reached the last 16 only to be defeated by another Prep School Lions team 1-0 in a game which saw Rowan Miell-Ingram scoring the winning goal! Rowan, then representing Abingdon Prep School has recently joined the ​
third year at Abingdon Senior School. Arun was also voted his team’s player of the tournament.

The four Abingdon pupils were selected at trials in November 2016 and for those who were lucky enough to be selected this really was an experience to remember.  It’s not often that you have the chance to pit yourself against some of the best young players in the world and they will all undoubtedly return to England better for the experience. Quality football played in the right spirit and a thoroughly enjoyable week.

“The Gothia Cup was a fun and exhilarating experience where I played teams from around the world and made great friends.” (Caleb Maijeh)

“To sum up the Gothia Cup it was the best experience of my life. It was an incredible atmosphere throughout the whole of the tournament and I loved playing against teams from all around the world. My highlight was scoring a goal against Austin Lonestars from America.” (Will Wallis) 

More News