The Abyei under-17 female soccer team will participate in this year’s National Peace and Unity Day tournament in the South Sudanese capital Juba, officials confirmed.
Victor Bol Dau, the Director General of the Abyei Administrative Area Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sports, told Radio Tamazuj Thursday that the tournament is funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and confirmed the final selection of the team that will represent Abyei at the national competition which commences on Sunday 28 January.
“Today (Thursday) we are encouraging and empowering young girls to go and represent us at the National Peace and Unity competition funded by JICA in Juba,” he said. “We met the sports minister and listened to his advice on how to behave while in Juba and get good results.”
Bol urged the team to use the opportunity to bring glory to the Abyei region.
“I expect everybody and the sons and daughters of Abyei to be ready to support these little girls so that they perform well and bring back medals to Abyei. As a ministry, we have been ready since the inception of the girls’ team and have approved SSP 1 million and other things to support their stay in Juba during the tournament,” he stated. “Sports is important and God created human beings equally in terms of brain and actions. We encourage the girls’ team to take this journey with full responsibility and represent Abyei.”
The team’s coach, Justin Mawien Abyei, said they were ready to participate in the tournament as they had enough time to prepare.
“We are ready, we started training several days ago for this tournament,” he said. “I have 10 players because this is the seven players’ team setup. It is a half-field game and there are three substitutes.”
For her part, Nyansugar Yak, the team’s captain, said her players are upbeat and ready for the tournament.
“We have practiced our shots and perfected our skills,” she said confidently, “We have a few issues here and there but they are not many and will not present a problem.”