Africa Youth Cup organisers eye Ghana for 3rd edition

The Africa Youth Cup International Football Tournament has set eyes on Ghana to host the 3rd edition, as organizers plan another visit to bring closure on formalities.

According to Toloba Sports Consult, the organizing partners, a top-level delegation will be visiting the country in the coming days for a follow-up to preparations underway for a successful tournament.

President and Founder, Musah Toloba, informed the Minister of Youth and Sports, Mustapha Yussif, during a courtesy call visit to the ministry in December.

The purpose of the visit was to formally introduce the AYC tournament and inform the Honourable Minister of the organizers’ intention to host the 3rd edition of the International Youth Football Tournament in Ghana.

"We shall be in Ghana from the 9th to 17th April 2024, to officially meet with the sporting authorities in Ghana through our partners and facilitators," he said.

The Africa Youth Cup (AYC) International Football Tournament was established by Serahana Sports to provide a global platform for football academies in Africa to promote their teams and showcase the skills of their players for offshore soccer career opportunities.

The tournament also offers opportunities for football academies in Africa to compete with some of the best youth soccer academies from Africa and the rest of the world under the same atmosphere and flavour as obtainable in Asia, Europe, and Southern America.

Both the maiden and second editions of the tournament were hosted by the Republic of Cape Verde in April 2019 and October 2023 respectively.

"We remain eternally grateful to the people and government of Cape Verde for embracing the Africa Youth Cup which has had a tremendous impact on Cape Verdean football development, including that of Ivory Coast, a country that has been consistent with their participation in both editions of the tournament," he added.

Pundits have argued that Ivory Coast winning the last AFCON is not far from the gains of their AYC experience.

The Africa Youth Cup is a tournament of opportunities, it is unarguably an elite competition of the football academies and the most competitive in the African continent drawing from the profile of the past and current participations. It is also instructive to note that presently, the 2023 MVP of the female category in the maiden edition of the tournament is in Spain undergoing trials with Spanish top clubs.

The Cape Verde experience has proven that Africa has capacity to host the rest of the world in a youth soccer festival that will see football academies in Africa in action with the best youth soccer academies from other parts of the world to complement the ongoing progress made by CAF and FIFA in youth soccer development programmes in the continent.

"It is our hope that the AYC tournament shall present a wonderful opportunity for Ghana to host football academies from Africa and the rest of the world. Africa Youth Cup is a direct response to similar international youth soccer tournaments in Europe and other parts of the world," the president concluded.