Tuesday marked an necessary step ahead for ladies’s soccer in Africa with the kick-off of the inaugural Underneath-17 Ladies Built-in Soccer Match (GIFT) in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.
The pilot version of the important new match, which was launched to diversify the soccer providing on the continent and promote the emergence of recent expertise, is already residing as much as its billing.
Because the groups took to the pitch on the Azam Advanced Stadium for the standard warm-up session forward of the opening match, few might have anticipated the spectacle to come back.
JKT Queens are a well-recognized title in Tanzanian girls’s soccer and have already confirmed themselves at senior degree by taking part on the CAF Girls’s Champions League 2023 in Cote d’Ivoire.
They had been up in opposition to the younger prodigies from the Kenya Academy of Sports activities (KAS), who like all groups on the match have a dream of turning into soccer gamers at worldwide degree.
The day started with a vibrant opening ceremony, the place younger women aged 7 to 12 from Fountain Gate Academy delighted the viewers with dances to rhythms from varied areas of the African continent.
On the finish of an exhilarating opening match, JKT Queens secured a powerful 3-0 victory in opposition to KAS.
Winifrida Hubert Gerald, the star participant and ahead for JKT Queens, scored two of her crew’s targets. She additionally performs for the membership’s senior crew, which participates in Tanzania’s Premier Girls’s League. Her shining expertise hints at a shiny future.
Gamers from KAS, together with Lindey Atieno and Mitshel Muthama, additionally impressed with their expertise, suggesting the subsequent video games will ship a greater consequence for the Kenyans.
The CAF U-17 GIFT match already evokes a brand new era of feminine footballers by offering a platform for younger expertise. It is going to assist to determine and nurture gamers, promote gender equality in sports activities and encourage extra younger women to play soccer.
The expertise gained right here, following the introduction of the CAF African Colleges Soccer Championship in 2022, will contribute to the expansion of ladies’s soccer throughout the continent, paving the best way for future stars and champions.
After the match, KAS head coach Jackline Juma mentioned: “It was a troublesome sport as a result of my crew did not know our opponents effectively, however we performed effectively and created many probabilities that we didn’t convert. We’ve not misplaced hope but, as we nonetheless have matches to play. We are going to come again stronger and higher ready to win the subsequent video games.”
JKT Queens head coach Ester Chabruma added: “We thank God for this victory, nevertheless it was a troublesome sport. We did not know our opponents, so we allow them to play for 25 minutes to review their sport and discover one of the simplest ways to attain. That is how we gained the match.”
The CAF U-17 GIFT Match continues in Dar es Salaam with all matches stay on CAF’s Official YouTube Channel, CAF TV.
Followers are additionally inspired to have interaction with the web dialog throughout all CAF’s digital platforms utilizing #U17GIFT2025.
For a full checklist of fixtures and kick off occasions of the CAF U-17 GIFT match, CLICK HERE
