PETALING JAYA: Selangor are looking to increase their football talent pool through three youth tournaments.
They will be organising the Datuk Mokhtar Dahari Under-18 and Under-15 Cup, and the Raja Muda Selangor Under-12 Cup to gather the best school teams from each district.
Each tournament will have 32 teams held on different dates. The Under-18 will be held from Aug 5-27, while the Under-15 will be held from Nov 11-Dec 16.
The Under-12 Cup will be from Oct 1-Nov 4.
Orang Besar Daerah Petaling Datuk Emran Kadir said the tournaments would involve 10 districts in Selangor and each district will send their champions and runners-up for the tournament.
He said that several talents have gone on to play professionally, and one popular player who came from these tournaments was Selangor striker Mohd Danial Asri, who played for SMK Dato’ Harun, Tanjung Karang, in the Mokhtar Dahari Cups.
“We want to unearth talents for the state and hopefully see some of these players play professionally not just for Selangor but for other clubs as well,” said Emran.
“Take the Raja Muda Selangor Cup as an example. It has been organised since 1988. The Mokhtar Dahari tournaments, the Under-18 Cup were held since 2014 and the Under-15 from 2016.
“We hope these tournaments will fulfil our goal of increasing the number of players for football. We hope they make an impact in the state and one day go all the way to play for Malaysia.”
For the U-18 tournament, SMK Meru, Klang are the defending champions, while SMK Shah Alam are the current Under-15 winners.
The Under-12 holders are SK Seksyen 20, Shah Alam.
