Neymar Jr’s Five competition is back to Romania to find the best non-professional football team and send it to Brazil for a football championship.
“I want to bring together players from all around the world, to celebrate a passion we share – football. It is a spectacular competition, fast and technique, which takes place in countries from six continents, including Brazil, my homeland, and France, where I play for Paris Saint-Germain. I cannot wait to see the finalists from 2019.” – says Neymar for the official Red Bull site.
To be short about the rules of the competition and its purpose, Neymar Jr’s Five wants to find the best non-professional five-player football team from each country and send them to Brazil to try their luck in a world championship. The competition doesn’t apply gender limitations, and wants to promote competitiveness among young amateur football players. Even though the rule says that the age of the participants should be between sixteen to twenty five, each team is allowed to have two older players. Not only the number of players differs from classic football, but the time for the game is also shorter: the teams have only ten minutes to win the match. Another rule is that whenever a team scores a goal, the other team loses a player, and it can get pretty hard not to get a goal once you don’t have a goalkeeper.
“I’ve been playing football since I was a little kid. It is my passion and I get really sad sometimes that I don’t have enough time to play it. Neymar Jr’s Five competition is a pretty good reason to come to the stadium and do what you love. Moreover, everyone has equal chances to go to Brazil, so why not combine travelling and football?” – says Marius, one of the participants.
In Romania, the competition takes place in eight cities: Bucharest (with two tournaments), Constanța, Timișoara, Brașov, Târgu Mureș, Cluj-Napoca, Iași and Pitești. Another local tournament will take place in Chișinău, Republic of Moldova.
The first stage of the competition, which has to show the best football team from each city, has begun on 30th March in Bucharest and is going to end on 1st June in Chișinău.
The next stage of Romanian tournament will be held on June 8th in Bucharest. During the national selection,ten teams will fight for the chance to win and meet other teams from all around the world in Brazil at the championship.
“Last year we’ve done much better compared to this one. But me and my team are here not to win, but to enjoy our time playing football. So even though we lost, we’re happy to be here.” – said Alexander, one of the players.
The first stage of the competition, which has to show the best football team from each city, has begun on 30th March in Bucharest and is going to end on 1st June in Chișinău.
The next stage of Romanian tournament will be held on June 8th in Bucharest. During the national selection,ten teams will fight for the chance to win and meet other teams from all around the world in Brazil at the championship.
“Last year we’ve done much better compared to this one. But me and my team are here not to win, but to enjoy our time playing football. So even though we lost, we’re happy to be here.” – said Alexander, one of the players.
Compared to last year’s edition, in 2019 less teams entered the competition. In 2018, over 125.000 players from 62 countries submitted their application, in comparison with this year, with only 84.027 players from 48 countries.
“I’ve been participating in the competition since 2017 with the same boys in my team, and despite the fact we’ve lost in the previous years and this one, I still believe that one day my team is going to win and we’ll represent Romania at the championship in Brazil.” – said Olimpiu, one of the participants.
Despite the fact that Neymar Jr’s Five is just at the beginning, as it is the fourth edition of the tournament, Romania has already won and became world champions back in 2017, with TAO United team. Not only is it a reason to be proud of the Romanian team, but also a great motivation to win this year’s competition and return from Brazil with a winning cup.
So, in the little time remaining
until the best team from Romania will be sent to Brazil, let’s cross our
fingers and hope for them to return as winners.
