The cream of Australian African football talent was on display at the 3rd annual Australian Somali Football Championships finals.
The cream of Australian African football talent was on display at the 3rd annual Australian Somali Football Championships finals.
The championships were held at JJ Holland Park, Kensington, last week in front of a massive crowd, with the help of some of the Melbourne Victory boys.
This year-s event saw the Australian Somali Football Championships grow from 12 to 17 teams featuring five interstate teams, 11 teams from across Melbourne and an international team from New Zealand. The teams comprise players from the refugee Horn of African Australian communities including Somalia, South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Kenya.
It was billed “The Battle of the Flats” as Carlton defeated last year-s champions North Melbourne in the Men-s Final and Kensington defeated Carlton in the under 17-s final. There was some seriously good football on display as both teams gave it their all to take home the silverware in front of 4000 people in JJ Holland Park and Melbourne Victory were happy to be part of it.
Melbourne Victory are huge supporters of the event and were involved in the Championships for the entire week.
After a stunning win against the Newcastle Jets the night before, the Victory boys took some time out to support the young African player on their stage. Nathan Coe, Julius Davies and Theo Markelis helped out with 70 young kids in some small sided football at half time during the Final and were on-hand to sign autographs in the Victory marquee. Adama Traore and Jonathan Bru were also at the event, showing their support, engaging with their fans and taking centre stage during the closing ceremony as they presented the winners with their awards and celebrated with them.
Adama Traore said “It was a great day, a great tournament and it was exciting to see such talented young African footballers and the support that they received from their local communities”.
“We enjoyed being part of this tournament and we felt honoured to be there to reward the winners and join in the celebrations,” Jonathan Bru said.
Melbourne Victory offered both winning teams tickets to the Wellington Phoenix game this Saturday. Both teams will be invited onto the pitch at half time to celebrate their accomplishments of winning the Australian Somali Championships.
This engagement is one of the many community events Melbourne Victory are involved in to celebrate multiculturalism, cultural diversity and the coming together under the banner of football.
This will be continuously celebrated in the lead up to, and during our Australia Day game against Sydney FC, U-NITE on Saturday, January 26.
