Football: Majan College to represent Oman in Neymar Jr’s Five World Final in Brazil

Muscat: The Neymar Jr’s Five National Final crowned Team ‘Majan College’ as the champions on Saturday, as the team battled for first place at Hillat Al Zabadiyah in Muttrah.
Only 16 of the country’s best teams were selected to compete in the National Final of Neymar Jr’s Five, which was held in Oman for the second year. The competition took place after the footballers were selected from eight different qualifiers, which took place in Bausher, Darsait, Mabeilah, Al Musannah, Sohar, Shinas, Nizwa and Salalah with a total of 1,932 players.
Immediately after being announced as the winners, the team captain Mazin Al Harthy said: “Last year we won the tournament in Oman and we are protecting our title! We have players from Muscat, Bausher and Al Amerat who will be representing Oman.”
Talking about how the team came together, he said: “It’s our coach who managed to bring us together again. We all play for the college and have been playing together for a couple of years.”
The main twist to the five a-side football tournament is that it was played with no goalkeepers and each time a player scored a goal a player from the opposing team was eliminated.
Each match went on for 10 minutes until the whole team was eliminated.
In Oman, the Red Bull Event is being held in partnership with Instituto Neymar Jr, Ministry of Tourism, Salam Air, HiFM, Hala FM, Al Zabadiyah Sports Club and Millennium Resort Musannah.
The event spans across six continents and more than 50 countries with tens of thousands of players from around the world competing in the hope of making it all the way from their regional qualifiers to their national final and on to the World Final at the Instituto Projeto Neymar Jr in Praia Grande, Brazil.
The institute’s aim is to offer extracurricular educational and sporting activities to the most socially disadvantaged children and families to promote social inclusion and encourage participation in the community. The Instituto Projeto Neymar Jr was opened in 2014 and is the second ‘FutbolNet’.
Last year the 2016, World Champions from Brazil, ‘Anjos da Bola’, were rewarded with a VIP trip to Barcelona, where they got to spend time with Neymar Jr himself at the FC Barcelona training ground.
“Meeting the winners was incredible!” said Neymar Jr. “Now I can’t wait to see who makes it through to the 2017 World Final at my Instituto in Brazil.”