Football stars of tomorrow will today come together to show off their sporting skills as the seventh Al Kass International Cup gets underway at Aspire Zone. The annual tournament brings together 12 top Under-17 teams from around the world for the eleven-day football competition.
Qatar’s Aspire Academy will add local flavour to the tournament, which was last year won by Real Madrid (Spain), who are once again competing for the title. Other participating teams include AC Milan (Italy), Aspire Football Dreams (Qatar), Espérance de Tunis (Tunisia), Fenerbahçe S.K (Turkey), Guangzhou Evergrande (China), Kashiwa Reysol (Japan), Paris Saint Germain F.C (France), SL Benfica (Portugal), Tottenham Hotspur F.C (England), and Wydad AC (Morocco).
Speaking after the technical meeting, Japanese side Kashiwa Reysol coach Shin Yamanaka said, “We consider Al Kass International Cup a highlights on our season calendar and we are not putting ourselves under any pressure to better the fourth place we achieved last year but we want to play the best we can as see how far that takes us.”
Meanwhile Portuguese club side, Benfica are back in the tournament after last year’s absence and boast 14 players in their squad who are in their age group national team.
Benfica manager Filipe Alves called Al Kass Cup the best of the 40 youth football tournaments across all age groups that the club plays in. “We have brought to this year’s competition the finest of the youth teams we currently have at Benfica and with the likes of Real Madrid, Aspire Football Dreams PSG and AC Milan we expect a very competitive tournament and we will battle hard for honours against some of the teams in the world,” remarked Alves. 
In the first match of the tournament, which kicks off today, defending champions Real Madrid will go up against Fenerbahce SK, before Guangzhou Evergrande go head-to-head with SL Benfica in the second match of the day. In the final match of the day, Esperance de Tunis will take on Wydad AC.
The first round of the tournament will pit groups of three teams against each other in a round-robin competition, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the knockout round. The final will be held on 31 January.
Aspire Academy’s team kicks of its campaign in Group A of the tournament with an encounter against Guangzhou tomorrow at 5:35pm on Aspire pitch 4 before taking on Benfica on Wednesday, January 24, at 5:35pm on Aspire pitch 4.
This year Spanish coach, Unai Melgosa Zorrilla is in charge of the abundant Qatari talent under his tutelage and ahead of the tournament he spoke of the integral part this competition plays in the Academy’s ultimate goal which is to develop its players to be competent and competitive at the highest level of the game. Coach Zorrilla and his charges spent a month of preparation in Cyprus and upon return to Doha engaged Greek club side Olympiacos twice in friendly matches.  
Official tournament sponsor Al Kass TV will broadcast all the games live with both Arabic and English commentary. Live streaming of all matches will available on http://internationalcup.alkass.net
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