Friday 10 / May / 2024
Muscat: The Neymar Jr’s Five National Final crowned Team ‘Majan College’ from Muscat as the champions on Friday, as the team battled for first place at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Sohar.
Only 16 of the country’s best teams were selected to compete in the National Final of Neymar Jr’s Five, which was held in Oman for the first time. The competition took place after the footballers were selected from five different qualifiers, which took place in Muscat, Sohar, Nizwa and Salalah.
Immediately after being announced as the winners, the 24-year-old team Captain Salim Saif Alamri said: “We feel very good about winning and it’s an honour to represent Oman in Brazil. We are really excited and are waiting for our tickets!”
Talking about how the team came together and their strengths on the pitch he said: “We came through our college, the college organised us together and the coach of course. Our coach, our tactics and the feeling of unity made us stand out and was our main strength.”
The captain of the team, which qualified last month in Muscat at the Bousher Qualifier, added: “We have being playing together for a long time through the college. It was great to see the guys come together and play, we are going to have a BBQ tonight or tomorrow to celebrate and after that we will focus on our training.”
The main twist to the five a-side football tournament is that it was played with no goalkeepers and each time a player scored a goal a player from the opposing team was eliminated. Each match went on for 10 minutes until the whole team was eliminated. If time was up, the two teams went for penalty shootouts that were made by having two players go one-on-one for 3 seconds.
Team ‘Majan College’ will advance to the finals in July in Praia Grande, where Neymar Jr grew up, started his professional career and lately founded “Instituto Projeto Neymar Jr”.
Talking about the event, Sales & Marketing Coordinator, Asmaa Habiballah said: “Radisson Blu Sohar is pleased to have hosted this year's National Final of Red Bull Neymar Jr's Five which was the first edition in Oman. We are happy to promote young Omani football talent and look forward to hosting many more such events in the future.''
More than 35 countries from six continents are participating in the global tournament. The world final will be held in July at the Instituto Projeto Neymar Jr in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The institute’s aim is to offer extracurricular educational and sporting activities to the most socially disadvantaged children and families to promote social inclusion and encourage participation in the community. The Instituto Projeto Neymar Jr was opened in 2014 and is the second 'FutbolNet' program in Brazil in partnership with FC Barcelona Foundation after a first was set up in the favelas in Rio de Janeiro two years earlier.
The winner of the World Final will receive a trip to Barcelona, accompanied by Neymar Jr. to attend one of the team games.
The Red Bull event was held in partnership with Virgin Megastore, Instituto Neymar Jr, Hi FM Muscat, Hala FM, Oman Ministry of Tourism and Shop and Ship.
