GOA:
Neymar Jr.’s Five, a globally established five-on-five football tournament organized by energy drink giant Red Bull is set to kick off the city qualifiers across 14 cities in the country including Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Goa, Delhi, Aizawl, Chandigarh, Guwahati, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kochi and Shillong.
The winning teams will then compete at the Neymar Jr’s Five national finals in March 2018 for a chance to make it to the Neymar Jr’s Five 2018 World Finals in Brazil in July. It is the biggest 5-a-side football tournament in the country in-terms of locations & participants. The pre-qualifiers of the 3rd edition of Neymar Jr’s Five kicked-off in September 2017 at Futsal Arena, DY Patil Stadium as a part of the 4-day long football festival prior to FIFA U-17 World cup.
The tournament is based on the belief that footballers never earn their skills in big stadiums at big clubs. Their journey almost always begins on the streets, with their friends, like it did for Neymar Jr. In the streets, their main obstacles are not the opposing defenders but the hard gravel, sweltering heat and the blinding dust. Most legends started out on a mere, obstacle-filled street, but turned the mere street into a path. A path to blinding success. Just ask Pele, Alfredo Di Stefano or Neymar Jr. Neymar Jr’s journey started with a street and a dream and continues with a stadium and a fairy-tale.
Neymar Jr’s Five gives football lovers across India a chance to use their street skills to carve their path to glory, and a chance to represent the country in Brazil. The tournament organised by Red Bull has a unique, fast-paced format. Neymar Jr’s Five sees two teams of five players, sans a goalkeeper, have 10 minutes to strut their stuff and win a chance to impress Neymar Jr. The twist in this thrilling affair is that for each goal scored by a team, a member of the opposition will have to leave the field. The team with the maximum players take the spoils. The winner is the team with most players on the field (goals) after 10 minutes or if all players are eliminated. If both teams score equal number of goals, or if no goals are scored, the match is drawn. Each team must have participants of the age 16-25 and 2 players can be older than 25 years.
The inaugural edition of Neymar’s signature football tournament featured more than 65,000 people taking part across 6 continents and 47 countries. Over 100,000 players from 53 countries battled for a spot in the Neymar Jr’s Five 2017 World Finals last year set out in the hope of making it all the way from the qualifiers to the World Final in July at the Instituto Projeto Neymar Jr in Praia Grande, Brazil and won by Romania.
Hyderabad Sporting FC had lifted the Neymar Jr’s Five 2017 national champion trophy in a field of more than 2000 teams from 12 cities and travelled to Brazil for the World Finals. With five-a-side football still at its infancy in India, Zubair Sultan and his team returned enriched with the experience of playing the shortened version of the game at the highest level.
To register and for further details visit https://www.neymarjrsfive.com
