Later this week, number of Partizan youth teams take part in international tournaments. Kids born 2011 will play in Florence, 2013 generation in Toscana while U17 team will take part in Amsterdam youth event.
“We travel on 29th of March to play in a group alongside Ajax, Man City and Portimonense – a very good quality group. It`s kind of a tournament to show us where we are and what level we are on, how we work, how close we are to those on top football level. We`ll try to do what`s up to us to get kids ready for something like this and I see there is a bit of stage fright involved but I think it`s more about desire. Boys need to adapt to the tournament and such quality opposition. We want to play good football and represent Partizan and Serbia in Europe as such”, said Partizan U17 coach Djordjije Cetkovic.
Partizan affiliated club Teleoptik will make their first appearance at the tournament in France, playing hosts Saint Etienne and Portuguese Braga, who played Partizan U19 team in UEFA Youth League recently.
“Team is ready as the tournament is sandwiched in-between our league duties, so we`ll be ready for the challenge! This is such a nice thing for the boys, first time they will take part in such event. It`s important for the boys to see and feel some other teams while us coaches will be able to see how the European teams work. We`ll do our best to live up to the expectations”, said Teleoptik youths coach Nenad Djukanovic.
Partizan youth academy regularly takes part in a Pordenone tournament, this year it`s time for kids born year 2009 and 2010.
“It`s a three-day tournament, Udinese, Genoa, Venice, Burnley, MTK Hungary, Bulgarian, Swiss and lot more Italian youth teams involved. We`ll try to make a step forward compared to last year when we were eliminated in semis, now I see us making it to the final of the tournament. It`s always important to play good and achieve good results and we have highest aims this time around – we want to win it”, said 2009 generation coach Milos Bogunovic.
While most of the youth teams are away, Partizan U19 team will play a league home fixture against Zemun this weekend.
