Fountain Gate and Ben Sekou are the winners of the CAF African Schools Football
Fountain Gate of Tanzania and Ben Sekou of Guinea walk away as the first inaugural championship of the CAF African Schools Football Championship at the Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium in Clermont, South Africa.
For the final (boys and girls), it was all to play for; concentration levels were high from the first minute of the game as teams were competing for the bragging rights of becoming the first winners of the CAF African Schools Football Championship.
Girls Competition/Final
Fountain Gate School of Tanzania walks away from Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium as the first inaugural CAF African Schools Football Championship of the girl’s competition. Fountain Gate took to the finals against Ecole Omar IBN Khatab of Morocco after defeating CEG De Mfilou of Congo by 4 goals to nil.
Spectators were expecting an electrifying final between these two teams, and they were in for a treat as both teams had proven their dominance throughout the competition. Fountain Gate had the upper hand in the first few minutes of the game as they took an early lead in the 14th minute through Winfrida Gerald.
Fountain Gate missed an opportunity to extend the lead right after, through a missed opportunity by Mary Siyame and a fantastic save by Ahlam Boukhorb, the goalkeeper of Omar who has been fantastic throughout the finals.
Coming into the 2nd half of the match, Winifrida Gerald extended the lead for her team. 8 minutes before the match ended, Irene Chitanda scored the last goal of the match ensuring her team away with the trophy and with USD 300 000.
Runners-up, who also had a great tournament despite losing out on the finals, the young girls of Omar will walk away with their head help up high and with USD 200 000.
Boys Competition/Final
The last match of the day, for the CAF African Schools Football Championship between the home side Clapham High School and Ben Sekou from Guinea. Coming into the final, Clapham High School defeated Sainte Rita by a goal to nil to secure a spot in the final.
A very physical and highly contested first half between Clapham and Ben Sekou. Although ending the 1st half 0-0, Ben Sekou took control of the ball possession using sheer dominance of physicality to their advantage.
Goals in the final game came in the 2nd half as Ben Sekou took the first lead through Amara Keita jersey no.10 who has been one of the exciting players to watch in the finals.
Clapham equalized in the 31st minute through a beautiful goal by Kagiso Maloka who came in the 2nd half of the game. The match final ended in a 1 all draw taking the game into the penalties where Ben Sekou Sylla walked out victorious by scoring all five penalties while their opponent, Clapham missed only one of their penalties.
A very successful inaugural competition that saw 41 countries and 20 000 registered schools to play in the CAF African Schools Football Championship; it all came down to 14 schools from countries to compete in Durban, South Africa for the finals of the competition.
Ben Sekou and Fountain Gate proudly walk away as the first winners of the competition.
However, the beauty of this competition is that everyone walked as a winner as this speaks volume to the long term development and investment of football on the youth ranks and in schools of the African continent.
