Youth Team wins Marcel Desailly Cup

WINDHOEK-NFA.ORG.NA The national youth team touring Ghana continued to rack up some impressive results as they were crowd champions of a Marcel Desailly Cup on Sunday afternoon in Accra. The team, comprising of under-17 and u-20 players, and coached by Turipamue Upi, last week played to a two-all draw with Eastland FC with Orlando Pirates striker Terdius Uiseb and Tura Magic right-back Salom Pam scoring for the Namibians. The team then narrowly 1-0 lost on Saturday against Hero Stars, a team owned and coached by former Ghanaian international Yaw Preko. On Sunday, the team took part in an encounter against the Marcell Desailly select-side which included professional players out of contracts or on holiday in Ghana and after a goalless 90 minutes and a penalty miss by Pam, the Namibian youth team won 5-4 in the post-match shoot-out and were presented with a winners' trophy after the match. According to the team's manager Jakes Amaning, the team will be coming back home this weekend. “We have been involved in some high profile games against local sides here and the players have shown some great improvement in their game and they are getting better with each game we play. It is a great experience for the team and going forward; we hope to see these players graduate into the senior national team,” he said. Meanwhile the team was invited by an American Lincoln Community School in Accra for a coaching clinic with former FIFA Under-17 player of the Year in 1991 Nii Lamptey and his former youth teammate Mohammed Gargo, who went on to captain Italian club Udinese and also played for Borussia Dortmund in Germany. Amaning says Lamptey, who has played for Aston Villa, Coventry City and PSV Eindhoven in Europe in his heydays, has been with the Namibian team for the past three days.