JEDDAH: The Manarat International School English Section for Boys Football Team won the International Schools eight-a-side outdoor football tournament sponsored by Adidas and Pinehill Arabian Foods (Toya). The tournament was held at the Manarat School English Section for Boys in the Hay Al Safa district of Jeddah. Hala, Global, Zahrat Al Sahra, Rawabi Al Khadra and Tamer International School too participated.
All teams played two matches each and the top four teams (on points) then proceeded to the semifinals. Zahrat Al Sahra were outstanding in attack throughout scoring a total of 11 goals in their round robin matches, whilst Manarat boasted the best defense, conceding just one goal in the whole tournament. The Manarat boys began with a 1-0 win over Rawabi Al Khadra, then a 2-1 win over Tamer International School followed by a brilliant 3-0 win in the semifinals against Global. The best attack then confronted the best defense in a thrilling and tense final between Manarat and Zahrat Al Sahra, both teams attacking but neither able to score and both keepers making excellent saves.
The penalty shootout was nail-bitingly close but the Manarat goalkeeper Faisal Saqallah proved to be one of the heroes of the day saving two shots resulting in a final score of 5-4.
Faisal was subsequently awarded the Best Goalkeeper trophy. Other individual trophies were awarded to Ahmed Obaid from Zaharat Al Sahra for the Best Striker and Ahmed Al-Amoudi from Manarat was picked the Best Player. The Director of Manarat Schools Hamad Al Jassir the Headmaster of the English Section for Boys Ashraf Ahmad and the Deputy Headmaster Hazem Farouk thanked the sponsors Adidas and Pinehill Arabian Foods, in particular the Marketing Director Irfan Bajwa for their support. They also thanked the main organizers Abdel Kader El Saied and Shahzeb Latif, the respective school team coaches; Mohammed Fawzi and Mohammed Al-Bakr of Global, Ahmad Al-Hawaga of Zaharat Al Sahra, Ahmed Hasan of Rawabi Al Khadra, the referee for the whole tournament Mohammed Nouh of Manarat School (Arabic Section) and the players who participated and made this year’s tournament both entertaining and successful.
