Pinoy booter delighted with Moscow experience
By Jerome Lagunzad
Homegrown Aj Boy Victoriano made the most of his biggest break in his promising football career as he put on a stellar showing in the 6th Gazprom Football for Friendship International Championship at the Sapsan Arena Stadium in Moscow, Russia recently.
Victoriano, who at 12 is still scratching the surface of his full potential, did a commendable job as a midfielder for the Komodo Dragon squad, which performed well and reached the winner-take-all final.
“I am happy to have been given the opportunity to participate in the Football for Friendship program. The program has helped me to make a lot of friends from different countries and play football with them,” said Victoriano, who teamed up with his counterparts from Brazil, Wales, Kenya, Dominican Republic and Guinea-Bissau.
“The three-day training program before the championship has helped me to improve and learn new football skills which I will use in my future matches. The championship was very exciting and I am happy to have performed well for my team. This has been an amazing experience and I look forward to participate in more tournaments in the future.”
As a part of the F4F program, young footballers and journalists have to undergo an intensive training program for three days, called as the International Friendship Camp, where the young ambassadors were sorted into teams of different cultures and interacted with kids from 211 countries and regions.