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The FIFA U-17 World Cup is set to be hosted by India in 2017, and the biennial tournament will be the first time that the peninsular country will host an international level football competition. En route to the preparation of the World Cup, India is set to host the BRICS U-17 cup in April next year, which will be played at the Ambedkar Stadium in New Delhi.Five nations who are part of the BRICS economic block. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will send their U-17 football teams for the tournament, with Delhi Dynamos U-17 team being the sixth participant. This will be an annual competition which will coincide every year with the BRICS summit and aims at promoting youth talent in the six countries.There is no shortage of such tournaments around the world, with European powerhouses like Bayer Munich, Manchester United and Barcelona regularly conducting such Youth Cups to play their part in the upliftment of the game of football.We take a look at five other similar tournaments whose objectives are to help the young players showcase their talent in front of the world and give them a chance to make it big.
#1 Bayern Munich Youth Cup
The Bayern Munich Youth Cup is organised by the German club and their partner Adidas. The tournament is an U-17, 7-a-side affair and school teams from Germany, Japan, USA, Thailand, Austria, Italy, India and China take part.
The club first conducts inter-school tournaments in the participant countries from where the top 10 players are picked to travel to Munich and are presented with a chance to represent their nation in the competition. India has a been part of the competition since 2014 when schools from around Delhi participated.
The 2016 edition of the Bayern Munich Youth Cup will see schools from New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore take part in the Indian leg. Along with selecting 10 players to represent India, the winning team will be given a chance to visit the Allianz Arena, the home of Bayern Munich, and witness a Bundesliga match unfold.
The Youth Cup World Finals will be played in Munich in May 2016.
#2 Iber Cup
The Iber Cup is one of the most prominent World Youth tournaments in the world. It is hosted in four countries around the world, Estoril (Portugal), Esbjerg (Denmark), Costa del Sol (Spain) and the United States of America. Almost 8,000 players from over 60 countries participate in it.
All clubs around the world who are members of their FIFA affiliated national associations can take part in the international competition. Notably, if the clubs are part of a country where football at youth level is managed by the schools, then teams affiliated by their school football association can also enroll themselves for the cup.
Boys and girls aged between 9 and 18 years of age take part and they are divided among various age groups. Almost 800 teams from all over the world take part in it, and clubs like Liverpool, Manchester City, Ajax, Bayer Leverkusen, Lyon, Atletico Madrid, Inter Milan, Juventus, FC Porto, SL Benfica, Sporting Lisbon, FC Zenit, Valencia, Sevilla and Paris Saint-Germain have already been part of the previous editions.
The tournament will take place between June and August in all the above-mentioned venues.
#3 Manchester United Premier Cup
The Manchester United Premier Cup was started in 1993 and more than 600 teams from all over Europe took part in the youth football tournament. The U-15 tournament is an annual affair and has been sponsored by Nike since its inception.
In 1994, the competition spread its roots to Asian countries as well, which increased the number of participants from 624 to 1067 and later in 1995 the Latin America nations were drafted in which meant the total number of teams went up to 1351. This tournament follows a regional structure, where teams from various regions around the globe qualify for the World Finals stage.
The tournament has continued to grow exponentially and in its last edition in 2014, over 8,000 teams and 1 million players competed in Premier Cup tournaments from 43 countries to qualify for the Premier Cup World Finals in Manchester.
#4 Football Cup Barcelona
Football Cup Barcelona is an international youth football tournament for boys and girls, held in Salou and Cambrils area in the south of Barcelona. The tournament is played according to the regulations of FIFA and the Spanish and Catalan Football Federation.
The matches are played on both grass and artificial grounds and both 7-a-side and 11-a-side matches are played. The 2016 edition of the competition will be played on 2 and 3 April and the second part of the same will be held in the month of October.
The tournament which started in 2014 accepts players between the age of seven years and 14 years. Later the participants are also taken for a trip to the iconic Camp Nou.
#5 Mediteranean International Cup
The Mediterranean International Cup has been helping young footballers for the past 15 years. It takes place in Girona-Costa Brava, an area in the North East of Spain in Catalonia located 100 km north of Barcelona.
The competition is considered as one of the best grassroots level football tournaments in the world. The 2015 edition saw more than 200 teams from 34 different countries participate in the International cup.
There are five different categories in the tournament with 11-a-side tournaments for U19, U16, U14 and U12 age groups along with a 7-a-side competition for U12 age group. Players like Lionel Messi, Neymar Jr, Gerard Pique, Cesc Fabregas, Marcelo, Anderson and Lucas Leiva have all participated in the competition earlier.
Ex-Barcelona and current Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola had also termed it the best youth tournament in the world.
