The Yaoundé 2 football team has carried the day at the just-ended Yaounde City Council football tournament baptized Festifoot Y Ongola. They came out on top winning their Yaoundé 3 counterparts in a dramatic penalty shootout, Saturday August 27. This was after an unimaginable come back from a 2-0 deficit, with a last minute stunning equaliser.
“We demonstrated resilience. We believed in ourselves and were able to equalize and win the tournament. I thank the City Mayor and the organizing team of this beautiful tournament which permitted us to valorize our youth potential through sports. My team was very strong on the field despite the score line we believed and in the end we won the trophy,” the Mayor of the Yaoundé 2 Council, Yannick Ayissi told the press.
Mayor Ayissi celebrates goal at final
Presiding over the final and award ceremony was Palalou Mindjiyawa, third deputy to the Yaoundé City Mayor. “For the past two months we have witnessed a highly competitive championship in which youths of our Division have expressed their talents and effervescence in respect and dignity. We watched a befitting final… the better side won the tournament,” he stated.
Mayor Palalou [L] hands medal to Yaounde 2 Mayor [R]
“I want to congratulate the winning team and encourage the runners-up as well as every other team that took part in this competition,” he added.
The tournament which started on July 01, 2023 saw participating teams face each other in league and cup games. The Yaoundé 3 side won the league, but failed to perfect their feat against Yaoundé 2 at the cup finals last Saturday.
Over 3 million FCFA won in prizes
Despite losing the cup finals, the Yaoundé 3 team however did not leave empty handed. They were awarded as runners up as well as for winning the championship phase of the competition. While the cup winners (Yaoundé 2) bagged home the sum of 1.5 million FCFA, the runners-up took home a similar financial package, 1 million FCFA for being league champions and 500,000 FCFA for being cup runners-up.
Yaounde 2 team celebrates with its Mayor
The Yaounde 1 side though not present at the finals, was awarded the sum of 100,000 FCFA for upholding the spirit of fair play. Many other prizes were awarded including for highest goal scorer and man of the match.
At the end of the prize award ceremony, the head of the organizing ceremony, Evina Avang Jean Jacques explained that the project was aimed at attaining results at the sportive, cultural and patrimonial levels, and it did.
The just-ended third edition of the sports tournament had the participation of teams from all seven subdivisions of the capital city.