Football:   Paradise Cup kicks off with high-scoring games   |09 August 2023

Rangers FC Academy (Photo: Neil Sirame)

The Paradise Cup kicked off yesterday afternoon at the Astro turf pitch at Roche Caïman with two high-scoring matches on the programme – Rangers FC Academy challenging Talenta Academia from Madagascar and Foresters taking on Marine Maintenance.

Reserved for under-13-year-olds, the tournament started off with some good football as the young players displayed their talents and what they have learnt from their football academies.

Both matches were played over 50 minutes – 25 minutes each half – with eight players on each team. Talenta Academia of Madagascar defeated local side Rangers FC 6-1 and the latter were only able to score a penalty early in the game.

Foresters Academy who have not formally trained together as the players have been attending training with their school clubs, suffered a heavy 0-18 defeat at the hands of Marine Maintenance Academy.

On Friday August 13, the second day of the tournament, Talenta Academia will face Foresters Academy and Marine Maintenance will meet Rangers FC at 3.30pm. The last set of matches are scheduled for Monday August 14 when Rangers FC will clash against Foresters Academy and Marine Maintenance will take on Talenta Academia.

Following the U13 Paradise Cup matches, the U17 team of Rovers FC and Talenta Academia played a friendly match which ended on a 4-4 draw.

Rangers FC have played a key role in hosting the Paradise Cup and friendly games. Speaking to Sports NATION, Rangers FC’s Terrence Tirant said the exchange will help local youth teams prepare for the new season in September.

“Since the SFF has the U13 national league it is a good thing that the Paradise Cup is being contested by U13 squads,” said Mr Tirant.

He added that Rangers FC are helping with the logistics and providing trophies and medals which have been sponsored by a friend of the football club – the honorary consul of Seychelles in Hungary Laszlo Kiss.

Mr Tirant mentioned that the idea behind the creation of Rangers FC is to give young players the opportunity to play football so that they can develop and progress into good players to later integrate the senior league.

In addition, Mr Tirant shared that their senior team who were re-established a year ago, will be playing in second division this coming season.

Neil Sirame