A squad of 15 young players from the Juventus Soccer School Malta (JSS), under the guidance of head coach Charles Borg, recently travelled to Turin for an end-of-season tournament, better known as the Juventus National Academy Cup.

Organised annually by the Juventus academy, this competition is now in its fifth year. Juventus soccer schools from all over Italy are invited to take part in the Academy Cup and this year the invitation was also extended to the Maltese school through Events Services.

In all, 800 youngsters, played in the three-day event with specific tasks assigned to individual players before teams were divided into groups.

Juventus Academy director and former Bianconeri and Italy player Gianluca Pessotto attended the Academy Cup along with the club’s youth sector officials Giuseppe Rossi, Alessandro Ramello and Andrea Vaccarano.

The Maltese boys figured in the classification matches for fifth to 10th places. Eventually, they finished eighth, a creditable showing considering 38 teams were taking part.

In the end-of-tournament vote by coaches to select the best performers, Maltese players Ivan Veselji, 10, and Timothy Aquilina, 12, were named best player overall and best goalkeeper respectively.

Juventus players Fabio Quagliarella and Vincenzo Iaquinta made a surprise visit during the tournament. They dedicated some time to sign autographs and posed for photos with the young hopefuls at the Academy Cup.

Meanwhile, Events Services have just launched the JSS Malta Summer Camp 2011. One may obtain more details through jssmalta@gmail.com.