Batelco Gunners United champions in Nasser 10 Football Tournament

Manama : Batelco Gunners United defeated Al Fakhar 2-1 to win its maiden title in the Nasser 10 Football Tournament Friday late on Friday at Khalifa Sports City Stadium in Isa Town.

The final was an exciting affair with Al Fakhar’s Mahdi Humaidan missing a penalty kick in the 35th minutes before his teammate Mustafa Yaqoub gave his team the lead two minutes later.

Brazilian Diego equalised for Batelco Gunners United in the 40th and they took the lead and the title in the dying minutes when Omar Al Malky fired home from distance. 

HH Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Representative of His Majesty the King for Charity Works and Youth Affairs, Chairman of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, President of Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) deputised Hesham bin Mohammed Al Jowder, Minister of Youth and Sports Affairs to crown the winners and present medals to the finalists and referees who officiated the match in the presence of BOC General Secretary Abdulrahman Askar, Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, President of the Bahrain Football Association (BFA) and members of the High Organising Committee, headed by Tawfiq Al Salehi.  

On this occasion, Shaikh Nasser stressed that the success of the 10th edition of this tournament, which embraced various sports events, was a real result of the outstanding effort and organised teamwork that delivered the message of noble goals to all young Bahrainis. 

Al Jowder thanked Shaikh Nasser for his continuous support to the youth and sports movement in the Kingdom and for his constant backing to Bahraini youth to reach the highest levels in sports and represent the Kingdom at various sporting events.

He congratulated Batelco Gunners on winning the title for the first time in their history and praised the unique position that Nasser 10 occupies at the regional level and the large number of fans who attend annually.

Batelco Gunners United captain Shaikh Khalid bin Salman Al Khalifa dedicated winning the title of Nasser 10 to the Honourary President of the team HH Shaikh Mohammed bin Salman Al Khalifa and the team sponsors, on top of which Batelco. “Our most important aim was to reach the final, and then came the bigger goal which was to win. This was the third time for us to reach the final after we lost the previous two in penalty shootouts,” said Shaikh Khalid. 

Brazilian player Diego won the top scorer of the tournament award after amassing seven goals and was the winner of this award last year, scoring 10 goals. 

The final match saw five cars raffled for spectators as per the directives of Shaikh Nasser to allocate big prizes for fans attending Nasser 10. The winners of the vehicles were Ema Chrom, Mohammed Al Dosari, Khalid Abdulaziz. Atta Mohammed Radwan and Mohammed Jameel.