Aspire Academy, Toronto FC and CESD La Djiri are ready to compete in the 2014 Future Champions Gauteng International Tournament

Johannesburg, Saturday, 22nd March 2014 – Three more of the international entrants for the 2014 Future Champions Gauteng International Tournament have been named with familiar combatants Aspire Academy and first-timers Toronto FC and Congo?s CESD La Djiri to make the prestigious junior international event that will take place from March 24-29 at the Football Training Centre in Pimville, Soweto.

The Aspire Academy for Sports Excellence was started by HH Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani and is one of the most modern facilities in the world, with state-of-the-art infrastructure to help nurture the country?s sports stars of tomorrow.
The Academy aims to drive an active sporting and healthy lifestyle for the people in Qatar and is recognised for its world-class facilities. They have an excellent football programme and will get the chance to show their progress at the 2014 Future Champions Gauteng International Tournament.

They are no strangers to the event having featured in 2012 when they finished in seventh and then again last year.

Toronto FC will be making their first appearance at Future Champions Gauteng International Tournament and also the first showing by a Canadian side in the competition?s history.The club was only founded in 2006 and the senior team actually competed in the American Major League Soccer competition.
They have a renowned academy set-up which is based at the state-of-the-art KIA Training Ground in North York that consists of three full-sized grass pitches and four artificial turfs for all-year round use.

The senior side is coached by former New Zealand international Ryan Nelson, no stranger to South Africa having represented his country at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and 2010 FIFA World Cup in the country.
Of their more notable current players, they have Brazil international goalkeeper Julio Cesar, USA international midfielder Michael Bradley and Scotland international defender Steven Caldwell.

CESD La Djiri will also be appearing at the tournament for the first time, but come from a country that has long produced top talent.

Congo football is making resurgence in recent years, as evidenced by club AC Leopards winning the 2012 CAF Confederations Cup and then making the group stages of the 2013 CAF Champions League, an achievement in itself.

The club has the next batch of young stars to emerge in the country and are expected to bring typically powerful and skillful Congolese players to the event.
Boca Juniors from Argentina were crowned Future Champions Gauteng winners in 2009, with Chinese side Shandong Luneng victors in 2010, before Clube Atletico Mineiro claimed the next two. Mexican side Club Tijuana won in 2013.

  • We had a wonderful football and cultural experience in Gauteng. The tournament and activities were very well organized and we found everyone involved extremely helpful and accommodating. We have all returned home with fantastic memories of our time in South Africa, both on and off the pitch, and have made many new friends as a result of the trip. I hope that we are invited to participate in future tournaments.

    Everton Academy Head Coach

  • The experience both on and off the field for our players during the Future Champions tournament in Gauteng was life-enriching for all those who participated. We were privileged enough to win this edition but what will be bringing us back in future is the cross-cultural education our players receive from spending time with athletes from all over the world. They are human beings before they are football players and enriching them with other cultures is as rewarding as the experience they receive on the field.

    Club Tijuana Director of Football

  • After twenty years of experiencing tournaments around the globe, Future Champions is hands down the best organized, well run International Tournament we have ever participated in. Bringing teams from dozens of different countries provided our boys exposure to cultural diversity they only read about in textbooks. It’s amazing how sport can be the cultural link that provides the opportunity to interact with each other and discover that our global community is a bit smaller than they realized. We had a football and cultural experience that will be cherished for the rest of our lives.

    Director of USYSA Select

  • For us to compete in Future Champions is much more than playing a series of matches. It is an opportunity to compete and contrast our level against the best teams from around the world and the possibility of living in another culture and environment for an unforgettable week, learning about the history of the fight for human rights.

    Director of Aspire Academy

  • The addition of a girls’ competition this year is a natural expansion for what has become a hugely popular event. Over and above the football, the players are also exposed to life-skills courses and HIV/AIDS awareness that could end up saving their lives in the future. We have had an amazing partnership with the Gauteng Province over the last decade and we thank each and every stakeholder for making the Future Champions Gauteng campaign such a huge success

    Tournament director