6th Football World Cup of Children from Care Homes

Two days of enormous emotions, 92 matches, 401 goals and nearly 270 laughing faces of young footballers from Care Homes around the world – this is the summary of the 6th Football World Cup of Children from Care Homes, which ended on Sunday, July 29th at Legia Warsaw stadium.

Players from Thailand, Russia, Jordan, Hungary, Ukraine, Portugal, Japan, Belarus, Serbia, France, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Germany, Vietnam, Estonia, Latvia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Spain, Palestine, Croatia and Nepal showed up on the pitch. After an incredibly fierce battle, the title of World Champion 2018 was won by the team from Ukraine, which stood on the podium for the first time in the history of the Championships! Silver trophy was awarded to the fantastic Dutch team, and the bronze medals hung around the necks of Poles who defended the title of the second World Vice-Champions they won a year ago in a beautiful style.

VI World Cup of Children from Care Homes is the world’s largest football tournament for children from care and education centres – It’s the only tournament of this kind in the world. The kids trained hard throughout the year to give their best. For them, it’s one of the most important events in the calendar. – says Sylwester Trześniewski, the organiser of the tournament and President of the “Hope For Mundial” Association.

Many winners

Legia Foundation supports the entire initiative from the beginning of its existence. Each year, they fund special prizes and gifts for the tournament’s participants. During the event there were also Legia Foundation volunteers who helped the organisers to take care of teams and participants. We know that coming to Poland and participating in such an event is likely to affect their lives positively and inspire them to make their dreams come true.

”For two days the players gave their best on the pitch. It was a real competition, real emotions and real world championships. The winners are not only those three teams, which stood on the podium, but every participant, because they had to overcome not only football rivals but also adversities unknown to children growing up in families, to win a place and arrive at this championship. I am glad that once again we could be part of this unique project” – says Anna Mioduska, the President of the Legia Foundation.

Exciting support

The 6th World Championships were also honoured by the presence of the Minister of Sport and Tourism – Witold Bańka and former football star players: Maniche, Frank Verlaat, Dariusz Dziekanowski, Sebastian Mila, Tomasz Kłos, Radosław Gilewicz, Jacek Krzynówek, and the newly appointed Polish national team coach – Jerzy Brzęczek.

After the World Cup finals, former football players took part in the Showcase Game: Television Team versus Internet Team. This time, the Internet Team, with the help of Sebastian Mila, Tomasz Kłos and Maniche, was better and after a long game, they defeated the Television team 4:3.