At least 10 young Rwandan talents aged under 15 years have selected to represent Rwanda at the 2023 ‘Bayern Munich Youth Cup’ that will take place in Germany in October. READ ALSO: Inside FERWAFA’s nationwide talent detection The FC Bayern Youth Cup is the world's biggest and oldest international youth football tournament (series) carried out by the German football giants. Since its inception in 2012, it has been conducted on a annual basis in cooperation with existing FC Bayern partners in selected countries including Brazil, China, India, Italy, Japan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Singapore, Thailand and the United States. The aim is to give children worldwide the chance to show their talent, irrespective of their social background. The players were selected after a one-day Bayern Munich Rwanda Youth Cup competition held at the Bugesera Stadium on Saturday. The 10 selected football hopefuls include Héritier Gatare Ndahiriwe, Elie Ishimwe, Abdul Hategekimana, Alex Twagirihirwe, Djibril Sheja, Thierry Byiringiro, Anselme Ntwali, Edison Ntwali, Barthazal Ndayishimiye and Cedric Mutangana. Five more reserve players were selected as possible replacements for any player who would get an injury before traveling to Germany in October. The reserves include Arsène Mugisha, Emmanuel Mico Rusaro, Olivier Nshimiyimana, Tumusifu Mwumvaneza and Jean Paul Singaye. Speaking after the selection exercise, the Permanent Secretary in Ministry of Education, Zephanie Niyonkuru, to seize the opportunity at the maximum as a bright starting point of their football career. “This is a start of a new journey. Being selected marks the beginning of the new journey,” said Niyonkuru. “Your colleagues at PSG Academy Rwanda made it in France, so I hope you go there with the same ambitions. Performing well in such tournaments would open doors for your careers, many eyes will be on you.” Francisco Quinones, Manager of International Youth Football at FC Bayern Munich, said that scouting was conducted well and he admired players who showed physical strengths and smartness. “Today was a really nice end of our amazing scouting exercise for the players who will represent the country in the ‘FC Bayern Munich Youth Cup’, the players were very good and ambitious,” Quinones said. “The players are really strong physically and take decisions very quickly, that is a thing we can build on. What they need is to give them more playing time and a lot of competitions because the have got talent needed.” FC Bayern has been conducting talent nationwide detection since Monday, September 11, attracting more than 10,000 players. The top 100 qualified to final selection held at Bugesera Stadium on Saturday where FC Bayern representative selected a Rwanda Team of 10 outstanding talents aged between 14-16 years that will travel to Munich, Germany for the Youth Cup tournaments. The selected team will travel to Munich on October 16 where they will have a five-days of training camp before the FC Bayern Youth Cup kicks off at the Allianz Arena. Like other participating countries, they will be trained by FC Bayern youth coaches at Säbener Strasse. In addition, participants from all over the world will receive a comprehensive social program during their stay in Munich. Before the Youth Cup tournament begins, the young players will meet FC Bayern senior team players, visit the city of Munich and attend the club’s last home Bundesliga fixture.
