Big Talent Soccer Academy wins Pearl Championships

Results

Final

Big Talent 1 (5) Black Stars 1 (3)

Third-place play-off

Mydel 2 Amerigo Boys 1

Big Talent Soccer Academy claimed this year's Pearl of Africa Youth Championship after edging Black Stars in the final 5-3 on penalties after 1-1 draw at Old Kampala Primary School ground on Wednesday.

The soccer academy owned by renowned musician Eddy Kenzo managed to beat all odds to win the second edition of the competition in the U-16 age category, in the tournament that is meant to identify talent from different parts of the country.

The tournament designed to nurture talent is sponsored by USA based professional footballer Micheal Azira together with Ronald Nsabyela and Musa Mawanda who are based in Europe.

"This is one of the ways we can pay back since we also started from the grassroots. We want to see that talent among children is promoted. We hope to make this competition even bigger and better next in the next edition since the number of participating teams is increasing with each edition," noted Uganda Cranes player Azira who plays for Chicago Fire in the Major League Soccer in the US.

Mike Azira decorates the Big Talent team that won the Pearl of Africa Youth Soccer tournament at Old Kampala Primary school.

Big Talent coached by Paul Nkata walked away with a set of jerseys and balls among other prizes.

"The boys showed a fighting spirit despite the fact that we didn't play as we had planned. This is a big achievement for them but they still need to work since this is not the end. We are grooming them for the future," stated Nkata.

Big Talent's Farouk Tumwesigye was the MVP while Abdul Rashid Mubiru from Mydel was the top scorer with five goals.

Ashraf Mutebi also from Mydel was voted as the best goalkeeper while Black Stars' Geoffrey Kasozi took the best defender accolade. Yusuf Bogere from Amerigo Boys was named the best midfielder.