• by Joe Curtis, writing from Miami, FL

The Milk Cup is an international youth football tournament held annually in Northern Ireland. The tournament was founded in 1983 with sixteen teams participating at an Under 16 level, which today is known as the Premier level. The inaugural winners of the Milk Cup were Motherwell F.C. from Scotland. Two years later, in 1985 the tournament expanded to include an Under 14 level, or the Junior level. The Junior and Premier sections are comprised of 24 and 20 club teams respectively. The third and final level of the competition was added in 1995. This was the Under 19 level, also known as the Elite level. This Elite level is comprised of 6 national U19 teams.

The tournament's popularity grew as a number of young stars emerged through the years. David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Gary Neville, and Jozy Altidore are just a few of the names that have emerged during the tournament.

This years Milk Cup was the twenty-ninth edition of the tournament. 50 teams in total participated in hopes of being crowned the champions of their respective sections. The story of the tournament this year took place in the Premier section. It involved a team that the majority of the world has never heard of. The country were this team is from, however, has slowly crawled its way in to the Football World. That country is Qatar. Qatar as we all know is set to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, but Qatar has also found its way onto Barcelona's shirt (Qatar Foundation) and into ownership with Paris Saint-Germain. This Milk Cup team, however, was different. It is a Qatari sports academy known as Aspire Academy.

Aspire finished second in the Premier section with a record of 3-0-0 and qualified for the Milk Cup Semi-Finals were they defeated Desportivo Brazil 6-0. Aspire moved on to the Finals were they faced Manchester United who won back-to-back championships in 2008 and 2009.

In the Final Aspire's Ibrahima Drame scored a hat-trick in the first 25 minutes. Aspire went into halftime with a commanding 3-0 lead but there was more scoring ahead of them. Pabe Babacar added a fourth goal in the 56th minute. Manchester United were outclassed from the start but were able to give their supporters something to cheer about in the 60th minute when Jack Barmby put United on the board. Aspire quickly answered with a Souleyman Kone goal that made it 5-1.

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