After five days of getting together, a lot of work, educational activities and, of course, a lot of football, the Flamengo Partner Clubs Festival ended this Friday (12), with competitions taking place on fields 4 and 5 of the George Helal Training Center. Almost 100 athletes aged 10 to 14 from Tolentino, Trieste, Inter de Minas and Wilson Goiano were able to enjoy all the structure and the same routine that the Flamengo youth team athletes have at their disposal on a daily basis.

The activities concluded with a gathering of all the athletes, reinforced by some players from Flamengo's youth academy, for two tournaments. The first competition featured four mixed teams from the under-11 and under-12 categories, and the second consisted of four teams from the under-13 and under-14 categories, all wearing official game uniforms. The tournament included semi-finals, third-place matches, and title deciders. Finally, medals were awarded, and José Rodrigo, coordinator of youth academy processes at Flamengo, gave a brief thank-you speech.

Coach Marcelo Corrêa, who manages Flamengo's under-13 team, closely followed all the activities of the youngsters, alongside dozens of members of the club's youth team coaching staff. Marcelinho, as he is known, did not hide his enthusiasm for the opportunity to provide moments that will certainly not be forgotten by the youngsters.

"We made sure to offer the boys a week of training with the same work routines as the Flamengo athletes. The participation and engagement of the entire coaching staff were very important for achieving the objectives. It's great to participate in projects like this because we had the chance to allow the boys to enjoy a little of their dream and, above all, we could see that everyone was very happy," says the coach.

As soon as they arrived at Ninho do Urubu, on Monday (8), the boys already wore the Flamengo uniform and participated in reduced field training. Following that, four workshops were held in the areas of social service, pedagogy, nutrition and psychology, addressing important issues of life in general, not necessarily of an athlete, reinforcing the objective of first forming citizens and then, football players.

Activities on the field continued, with training sessions led by Flamengo's coaching staff, monitored by the staff of partner clubs, while other training was also being carried out. All in accordance with the schedule prepared by the Flamengo youth team players.

On Tuesday, the boys underwent weight, height, and body composition assessments. On Wednesday, the physiology professionals conducted department-specific tests and jump tests. The penultimate day consisted of 7-a-side football tournaments on a reduced-size field, a type of training frequently used by the coaching staff of Flamengo's youth teams.

During the five days of the Festival, the proposal was that the athletes from the four partner clubs would have the same routine as the players from Flamengo's youth categories. In this way, the evaluations carried out by the club's professionals will also be based on these same conditions.