All India Don Bosco football tournament under 17 categories at Don Bosco Oratory Vaduthala:28-29 April 2026.
All India Don Bosco football tournament under 17 categories at Don Bosco Oratory Vaduthala:28-29 April 2026.
Don Bosco Sports Academy in collaboration with Bangaluru province organized the First All India Don Bosco Football Tournament under 17 categories at Don Bosco Oratory Vaduthala on 28 and 29 April 2026. There were 9 province teams who participated in this tournament, namely INC, IND, INH, INK, INM, INN, INP, INS and INT. the provinces of INB and ING could not participate. The tournament was conducted in Panampilly Sports Stadium Kochi.
In the inaugural function, Mrs. Priyanka G IAS, the District Collector was present, and she gave an inspirational talk on how sports help young people choose professional career and remain away from bad influences of the society. She also congratulated the host province and Don Bosco Sports Academy Vaduthala. Fr. Patrick Lepcha, Director of Don Bosco Youth Animation South Asia, presented the goals of this tournament. It is the dream and charism of Don Bosco and Salesians to enhance the lives of young people through education and healthy sports. Today sports are taken not only as recreational activities but as professional careers. It is also a platform to give national experience to the budding participants so that they can build upon this experience for their career building.
It was a well-organized tournament. Each team got enough recuperation time after each match. Many of the young participants got national level experience of playing tournaments and competed with good players from around the country. The tournament champion was the Chennai province; the runners up was Bangaluru province. Shillong province bagged the third position.
The chief guest for the prize distribution was the newly signed player of Kerala Blasters FC namely Mr.Karim Benarif. He was gracious to give away the trophies and to take personal photographs with the players.
After the tournament, the INK province organized a meeting with team management of Kerala Blaster Football club to discuss partnership wherein we can share the resources for the growth of our budding players.
We express our gratitude to SPCSA Council for giving us the opportunity and permission to organize this tournament. We also thank the Provincial and council members of Bangaluru province for hosting this event. We owe a great deal of gratitude to Fr. Josh Kanjooparambil, Director of DB Sports at national level, for organizing this event together with his team members and the community of Don Bosco Vaduthala. They have done a yeoman’s service.
I personally all the provinces who have prepared and sent the teams to participate in this maiden tournament. It was a grand success.
Viva Don Bosco.
Fr. Patrick Lepcha sdb
DBYA-SA
