KUALA LUMPUR – It’s going to be a hectic two-days of football action as a grand total of 80 teams take each other on at the 17th edition of the Datuk Chu Ah Nge International Junior Soccer Tournament.
Organised by the Royal Selangor Club (RSC), the competition has over the years consistently attracted the top talents from around the region, for the event taking place on December 2 and 3 at the RSC Sports Annex in Bukit Kiara.
RSC sports chairman Khoo Kah Jin said the competition will remain in the same knockout format, as the social club has entered a partnership with JSSL Singapore Professional Academy.
It should also be noted that the Singapore team – JSSL FC – has won the title for each of the past five years, from 2015 to 2019.
“We will still have the same five age groups and we are providing a chance for the younger kids to have a first taste of competition.
“Our older age groups are also catered towards giving selectors the opportunity to have a look at the talent and maybe further develop them.
“We are also excited with our friends across the causeway (JSSL Singapore Professional Academy) who have graciously offered entry to their JSSL Singapore Professional Academy 7s tournament where all winners of our tournament can participate in Singapore for free next year,” said Khoo during the press conference of the launching ceremony.
Meanwhile, former national head coach, Datuk K. Rajagopal, who attended the launch ceremony commended RSC’s initiatives and hopes to see more youth development programmes across the country.
“This is a really good work being done by RSC and to continue these efforts consistently over the years is not easy. I really admire their passion towards developing young talents for football and I’m happy to see these young talents have the right platform to showcase their footballing skills.
“I also hope more junior tournament initiatives like this will be organised across the country so it will be easier for the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) to scout these talents and include them in their development programmes,” Rajagopal said.
This tournament has also received support from football luminaries in the form of several ex-Malaysian football internationals, including Datuk Santokh Singh, Wong Kam Fook, Kamarul Zaman Yusoff, and V. Kalimuthu.
RSC has also been actively running junior football development programmes since 2005.
Aside from local teams, the RSC grassroots tournament will feature international participating teams, clubs and football academies from Singapore, Brunei, the Maldives, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, in the under 8, under 10, under 12, under 14 and under 16 categories.
Points are given for the performances of every team and the club with the most points combined from all age groups will take the overall title.
RSC has plans to increase the number of teams participating in next year’s edition, therefore increasing the playing time, which will result in a 3-day tournament. – November 29, 2023