Muzaffarabad (PNI) Norway Cup 2023 trials are underway by Muslim Hands Pakistan across Pakistan and Azad Kashmir. Coaches are on the ground for a hunt to find the best 16-man squad to represent Pakistan in the Norway Cup 2023.
Pakistan’s street football team will participate in the Norway Cup — the largest tournament in the world for people between 10 and 19 years old. The sport extravaganza will start on July 29, 2023, in Oslo, Norway.
Earlier, Pakistan finished in second place with an impressive performance in the Street Child World Cup in Doha, Qatar, last year.
They remained unbeaten throughout the tournament but lost the final against Egypt on penalties (4-3).
Pakistan’s forward Tufail Shinwari was the best player of the tournament who scored 13 goals. The 16-year-old became the centre of attention as he scored back-to-back hat-tricks against Bosnia and Qatar before his team entered the knock-out stage.
India went out of the tournament after playing its group matches.
The 11-day event included 28 teams from 24 countries and was organised by a UK-based non-profit, Street Child United. The Pakistani teams were chosen out of 90 players who were trained during a year-long trial process conducted by Muslim Hands, a charity organisation in Pakistan.
During the trial stage, families of selected players were also given stipends, encouraging them to allow their children, many of whom work to support their relatives, to play professional football.They were also the runners-up in the previous edition in Russia (2018), meanwhile in Brazil (2014) they finished third.
It must be noted that Pakistan have never qualified for the FIFA World Cup, and the men’s national team is currently ranked 195th, which is somewhat better than their lowest ranking of 205 in 2019.
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