On March 30, the Second International Football Tournament of young footballers dedicated to the memory of Kazakhstan statesman Nurlan Kapparov came to a close at the Almaty’s CSKA stadium.
Six teams of children born in 2003, took part in the tournament, including the last year’s winners -FC Zenit (Saint-Petersburg), as well as FC Kairat Almaty (Almaty), FC Pakhtakor (Tashkent), FC Dordoi (Bishkek), the Academy of Dushanbe (Tajikistan) and FC Velvet (Almaty). The winner of this year’s tournament was the FC Kairat Academy.
Among the vast numbers of fans, the CSKA stadium was attended by such famous guests and football veterans as Kuralbek Ordabayev, Viktor Katkov, Mikhail Gurman, Sergei Volgin, Valeriy Malygin, Dias Omarov, player of Kairat and well-known sports commentator, and Eustathius Pekhlevanidi, legendary player of FC Kairat, international class master of sports of the USSR, who specially arrived from Greece to the tournament.
The awards ceremony was held with participation of Dmitry Galyamin, Director of the FC Kairat Academy (Almaty), Gaukhar Kapparova, the spouse of Nurlan Kapparov, Abil Donbayev, Head of the Office of Physical Culture and Sport of Almat and many others. Berik Kaniyev, the Chairman of Lancaster Group and President of Kazakhstani League of Youth Football Zhas Kyran, said:
– Dear football fans! I would like to welcome you all at the tournament dedicated to the memory of our friend Nurlan Dzhambylovich Kapparov. It is very symbolic that we all met today, because this day our friend Nurlan would have turned 47. I would like to thank all the children and parents who came to this tournament and have created such an atmosphere. Nurlan loved sports and children, he implemented many social projects and therefore, this tournament was created for the children and the youth. For the second year, it keeps its international status and it gains more and more popularity. Thank you for such enthusiasm. We have witnessed a lot of energy and adrenaline during the contest today. Long time ago, we used to go to the Central stadium and watch FC Kairat playing in the highest League of the Soviet Union with such renowned teams as Spartak, Zenith, Pakhtakor, Dynamo Kyiv and other football clubs. Let the boys play in the international matches and continue such traditions. Everybody did their best at the tournament and hopefully remain pleased regardless of the results.
This tournament is the first in the series of joint youth football tournaments in 2017 held by the Kazakhstani League of Youth Football “Zhas Kyran” together with FC Kairat.
–We are holding the Tournament on this scale to attract the public to football, to give impetus to the development of youth football. When selecting the teams, it was important to focus on the Central Asia teams. Our level of play used to be the same, now we see the obvious difference. Therefore, it is important to know the level of the youth football in Kazakhstan, and to ensure its further development, -concluded Marat Abdildabekov, Vice President of Zhas Kyran.