Burundian football academy Meca FC were crowned champions of the inaugural Orange Youth Cup that concluded in Bugesera on Monday, September 4.
Organized by "Play for Hope" who own Rwandan second tier side Heroes FC, the tournament has been taking place at Bugesera Stadium for the past two weeks since August 22, bringing together nine teams in the U18 category and the same number of teams in the U15 category.
Goals from Mbalo Demba and Amissi Rukundo were enough for Meca FC, who were the only foreign participating team, to beat Rwanda’s United Eagles 2-0 in the final to lift the trophy in the U18 category while Love for Hope won the U15 competition after beating United Eagles 2-1 in the final.
Irie Niyonkuru and Clement Sibomana were on target for the champions while Jean Claude Niyimana netted the consolation for Love of Hope.
Meca FC captain Rodrigue Girumugisha, who was named the most outstanding player in the competition, commended the tournament as very beneficial to him and to his team in general.
"My experience from the competition is that the training sessions that I did before the competition was worth it because I have been performing well in every match that I played," Girumugisha told Times Sport
After helping his academy team win the tournament, the youngster, who draws inspiration from Burundi international and Simba ace Saido Ntibazonkiza, revealed that he is dreaming of playing for Rwandan club APR FC side one day.
"The team that I wish to play for here in Africa is APR. I hope God helps me achieve this dream."
"My favorite player in Burundi is Saido Ntibazonkiza. I like his style of play and I am trying to follow his footsteps," he said.
The champions in each category were awarded trophies, jerseys, medals and balls while runners-up were given balls and medals.
The Orange Youth Cup tournament aims at grooming and nurturing new football talents for the future. It also targets to foster unity among young Rwandans.
The inaugural edition of the tournament attracted youth teams operating in Bugesera District and Kigali and, according to the organisers, the competition will be organized on an annual basis to churn out talents and, as times goes by, more foreign teams will be involved.
"We will be organising more competitions during holidays to help young players develop their football talent,” said Fidele Kanamugire, the lead organizer of the tournament.
"So many children want to grow their talent but they don’t get competitions, yet football is all about competitions. But organizing this tournament, we hope to produce a number of talents to Rwandan football and overseas,” he added.