Stockport Sports Village welcomes Chinese football hopefuls

Youdan Trophy’s Tosh Farrell puts the team through their paces in Stockport
Youdan Trophy’s Tosh Farrell puts the team through their paces in Stockport

The man that helped coach Wayne Rooney to sporting greatness has been turning his attention to China’s female footballing stars of the future in a first for Stockport Sports Village.

Tosh Farrell, former technical co-ordinator and head of international football development at Everton, welcomed an under-16s team from Jiangsu in China to be trained at the Life Leisure facility in Woodley by the team behind England’s Youdan Trophy – one of the world’s foremost youth tournaments that attracts everyone from Manchester United to Seattle Sounders to compete.

China’s President Xi Jinping has already set his sights on having a world-class female team by 2030 and the Stockport event – which was run in conjunction with Suman Education International and the Jiangsu Education department– offered the young players some of football’s foremost sporting and technical expertise.

Dean Mohareb, Youdan Trophy tournament director, said: “It’s a true honour to be welcoming the Jiangsu team to Stockport Sports Village and having the chance to offer our expertise to a country with such an exciting footballing future.

The Jiangsu Ladies football team at Stockport Sports Village
The Jiangsu ladies’ team at Stockport Sports Village

“The Youdan Trophy has built an enviable reputation as the place to see the very best stars of the future and we hope our training will help ensure Asian’s best players will be joining us in the coming years.”

Sheffield-based You-Are-The-Ref.com, which is the world’s leading independent authority and education platform for match officials, are behind the creation of the Youdan Trophy competition which celebrates football’s first-ever tournament – the Football Challenge Cup presented by Thomas Youdan which was played only once in 1867 at Bramall Lane.

Demand for the expertise of the tournament is seeing a growing list of young foreign teams coming to the UK for training.

 

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