Six young footballers on board to Barcelona
Six young talented Sri Lankan football players have been selected for an opportunity of a lifetime, to attend an all-expense paid trip by Milo to a four-day football coaching camp run by FC Barcelona – the FC Barcelona Barça Academy (Soccer School).
Under-12 boys and girls who were selected to the national pool
The ‘Milo Road to Barcelona’ campaign was kicked-off with an All-Island Under-12 Sri Lanka Schools Football Tournament, organised by the Sri Lanka Schools’ Football Association under the patronage of the Ministry of Education.
The tournament was open to boys and girls born in 2007 and 2008. Over 250 girls’ teams and 800 boys’ teams took part in the tournament, bringing the total number of participants to 12,600 children. Based on the skills and values demonstrated at the tournament, the best children were shortlisted to attend the selection camp held at Anuradhapura Public Grounds on August 13 and 14 where four talented boys and the two talented girls were chosen to take part in the four-day camp in Barcelona, Spain.
M.I.M. Said of Hameed Al-Husainia College Colombo, M.A.A. Shan of Trinity College Kandy, K.M. Kalheem of Kinniya Al-Aqsa College, A. Simar of Pulawarmani Sherifudeen School, Kilinochchi, and young lasses Dulani Sandeepani of Bendiwewa Maha Vidyalaya Polonnaruwa and WidushaVinodya of Kavisigamuwe Maha Vidyalaya are the boys and girl who has been selected for this once in a lifetime opportunity.
The-two day coaching and selection camp consisted of an expert panel of coaches such as Sampath Perera, Sumith Walpola, Nimal Wijesekara, K.M. Kabeer, Lalith Weerasinghe and N. Devasayagam, along with coaches and officials from the Sri Lanka Schools Football Association and officials from the Ministry of Education were responsible for coaching the short-listed children and selecting the most deserving six players who demonstrated sound football skills during the two days.
These selected kids will go on a trip to Spain this October to visit ‘Camp Nou’, the home stadium of FC Barcelona. The four-day programme in ‘Camp Nou’ is inclusive of the ‘Escola’ football clinic, technical skills development on the pitch, ‘Camp Nou’ classroom sessions, museum visit, city tour, and interactions with the FC Barcelona coaches and teams from participating Milo countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Columbia and Maldives among others.
The six 'Road to Barcelona' winners