MARGAO: Goa will witness one of its biggest football extravaganzas in October, as Fatorda Stadium is gearing to host its dream football event –The FIFA U-17 World Cup.
Despite, the football fever failing to take up in the State, the fans will surely turn in large at the Nehru Stadium, which will host Group C clashes and a Group D match, to witness the young talent which will see the future stars from Brazil, Germany, Costa Rica etc.
Counting down towards the FIFA U-17 World Cup, here is a guide to the key clashes that are to be held at Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium
Group C is an interesting bunch with the European heavyweight’s Germany leading the way along with South American side Costa Rica, West Africa’s Guinea and West Asian giants Iran.
However, it must be noted that the U-17 team of Germany has never managed to win the FIFA U-17 World Cup, very unlike their senior national team which has won the World Cup on four occasions. Third places at the 2007 and 2011 editions of the U-17 mega-event remains their best finish to date.
For the Costa Ricans, the FIFA U-17 World Cup in India this year will be their tenth appearance in this competition. They finished in the top eight before crashing out of the 2015 edition of the tournament held in Chile, which remains their best performance to date.
Guinea’s best finish came in 1985 when they became one of the last four sides in the tournament. Incidentally, they have only made four appearances at the U-17 World Cup so far. The Iranian U17’s best World Cup feat is a Round-of-16 finish. They are not to be underestimated though as the Iranian side ended as runners-up in the 2016 edition of the AFC U-16 Championship.
