A fun-filled afternoon at Football Mini World Cup

The German Embassy, together with TAFA, hosted the Football Mini World Cup at the Colombo Race Course Grounds last Saturday. 

Four girls’ teams and four boys’ teams from Colombo, Gampaha, Jaffna and Negombo represented different nations. The German Ambassador Joern Rohde kicked off the event and the participants competed all day long to take home the trophy of the first Football Mini World Cup. 

After intriguing finals, the young and energetic teams from Jaffna representing Sri Lanka (girls) beat the Norwegian team while the USA team (boys) beat the German team and became the champions. But most importantly, all participants had fun on and off the pitch, making new friends with youngsters from different parts of the country.

Individual trophies for the best players were awarded to Paskaran Sanu (Jaffna, Team Sri Lanka) and Srikanth Tharsikan (Jaffna, Team USA). Jekatesuran Jetunsika (Jaffna, Team Sri Lanka) and Mohamed Nushkan (Colombo, Team Germany) were named the best goalkeepers. 

At the end of the day, all participants, whether winners or not, left with a big smile on their faces. It could also be because of the delicious lunch and dinner provided by the Hilton Colombo Residences or the tasty hotdogs, soft drinks and the ice creams sponsored by Elephant House which was perfect on a sunny day.

The organisers also offered their gratitude for the support provided by the embassies of Brazil, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the US as well as to Nestle for providing Milo packets and helping make the event a great success.