With their second undefeated Dubai International Championship (considered the World Cup for the category) title secured, the U-16 team of the Ninho Boys are already in Verona, Italy, where this Sunday afternoon (28) they will debut in another high-level international competition: the Verona Soccer Cup, traditionally called the "Trofeo Bonifacio". The tournament has simple rules. Two groups of four teams each, single-round matches within the brackets, and the top two teams will advance to the semifinals after the third round.

Flamengo is in Group A, alongside Italian teams Hellas Verona, Milan, and Vicenza, their opponents in the opening match at 13 p.m. Brasília time today. Group B includes Chievo Verona, Atalanta, Slavia Praha, and Red Bull Salzburg.

Coach Mario Jorge spoke about the delegation's expectations for the difficult competition on European soil, and about the fact that Mais Querido will face three teams from the Italian school in the first phase of the tournament.

"We have the best possible expectations for the competition. Thankfully, even after five games in Dubai, we don't have any injured players, and we arrive in Italy at full strength and with all our options available, which is very important in a tournament as highly competitive as this one, where we'll face three teams from the Italian school in the first round, whose strength and defensive organization are traditionally their strong points," said Mario Jorge.

The red-black commander also analyzed the team's performance as a whole during the second consecutive Dubai Tournament title, and highlighted the individual pillars of the title.

"Despite all the difficulties surrounding the long and tiring journey, I want to thank the competition organizers for the excellent conditions they provided us, including logistics, accommodations, and food. This gave us the necessary support to focus solely on fieldwork and the athletes' daily recovery, and enabled our team to reach the peak of its performance. In this context, I'd like to individually highlight our captain Diego, rightly named the tournament's best player, our center forward Ryan Luka, the tournament's top scorer with seven goals and named MVP of the final, as well as Daniel Campos, Richard, Victor Hugo, João Pedro... all of them excelled considerably and performed incredibly consistently in every match. But I'd also like to emphasize that the collective effort was very strong and made us unbeatable," the coach emphasized.

ryan luka – Center forward and a great finisher. In Dubai, he was the competition's top scorer with seven goals and was named MVP of the grand final, where he also made his mark and contributed to the club's second championship.