FRUTA Conquerors energetic striker Vernon Mills was yesterday named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the just concluded BK International Western Tigers-organised Super 8 knockout football tournament, at the presentation ceremony held in the canteen of one of the tournament sponsors, BK International. Apart from the MVP award, Mills also took home the most-goals-scored prize for his four goals, even though his side was forced to settle for second place behind the inaugural tournament winners, Pele Football Club, who defeated them 2-1 in an enthralling and exciting final.
Pele’s custodian Shawn Johnson, who did not concede any of the 22 goals scored in the four-day tournament that ran from January 21 to 30, was adjudged the best goalkeeper by the tournament officials and, like Mills, received a hamper courtesy of Toucan Industries.
For their win, Pele walked away with $500 000 and a trophy, leaving Fruta Conquerors to settle for the second prize of $200 000 and a trophy while the Guyana Defence Force, who defeated the host team 3-0 in the third-place playoff, received $100 000 and a trophy and BK Western Tigers $50 000 and a trophy.
Prior to the presentation of the prizes, president of BK Western Tigers and Attorney-at–Law Gordon Gilhuys congratulated the clubs for giving the football public a keenly contested tournament and promised to make the next tournament a bigger and better one.
In outlining the statistics of the tournament, club secretary Dexter Cush said, “Apart from being well attended, our tournament was an incident-free one, where one red card (shared to Pele’s Travis Grant in the final) and 14 yellow cards were issued by the referees.”
Cush congratulated Pele for winning the tournament and the Fruta Conquerors for the determination they displayed in reaching thus far in the tournament while being a young team in transition.
Public Relations Officer of Ansa McAl Limited, Darshanie Yussuf, expressed her satisfaction at the way the tournament was run, saying she was surprised and at the same time happy at what she witnessed at one of the games.
“We at Ansa McAl would like to see young players developing their skills in football and with the just concluded tournament, which was an example, some of the teams highlighted their young players.
“We are pleased with the overall performance of the teams who competed in this tournament we were happy to be associated with, and certainly we will continue to throw our support behind this tournament in the future,” stated Yussuf.
BK Western Tigers’ PRO Brentnol Bourne moved the vote of thanks, expressing gratitude to the numerous sponsors of the tournament, along with the Guyana Football Federation (GFF), the Guyana Police Force and the teams.