The 4th edition of the annual GTBank Soccer championship 2018 for Senior High Schools, kicked off at the El-Wak Stadium in Accra yesterday.
The two-day tournament christened ‘Principals’ Cup’ seeks to unearth the best football talents from schools in the Greater Accra Region and is in collaboration with the Ghana Educations Service.
The competition begun with eight Senior High Schools, including: Ngleshie Amanfro; Accra Academy; Ada SHS Technical; Teshie Presec; Kwabenya Community SHS; Accra Technical Training Centre; Tema Technical Institute; and Chemu SHS.
In the preliminaries, Teshie-Presec defeated Ada Tech by 4-3 on penalties after a very close encounter, while Accra Academy failed to secure a semi-final place after been knocked out of the competition by Ngleshie Amanfro 3-4 on penalties.
In the other first round encounters, Tema Sec Tech recorded the only victory in open play after outclassing first timers Kwabenya SHS 2-0. On the other hand, Chemu Sec Tech had to fight hard to beat Accra Technical Training Centre on penalties by 4-3 to progress to the semi-finals.
In the semi-finals, Presec Teshie defeated Ngleshie Amanfro 1-0 defeat to book date in the finals against Tema Technical Institute, which also recorded a 1-0 victory over Chemu in the semis.
Lekan Sanusi, General Manager of Guaranty Trust Bank Ghana Limited, speaking at the opening ceremony, noted that the development of sports in the country is of major importance to GTBank.
“This country has seen the rise of some soccer talents into our national teams who also started from a platform such as this. It is one thing to possess a skill or talent and another to be discovered and given the opportunity to showcase it to the world.
Through the GTBank sponsored soccer championship, three of our young ladies – Miss Nina Norshie and Miss Eunice Kpentey both from St. John’s Grammer SHS, and Miss Millot Pokua from Don Bosco Technical Training Institute have been called up to the National Female U-17 team, the Black Maidens. Success stories like these make us proud as sponsors,” Mr. Sanusi added.
Unlike previous years where the cup was competed for by Zonal teams, this year’s is competed by individual school teams.
Just like previous competitions, GTBank, will award exceptional talents like Top Goal Scorer, Best Goalkeeper, Best Defender and Best Player with an amount of GHC1,000 each.
The final will be played at the El-Wak Stadium tomorrow.
