Rafinha presents the Champions cups at the Barça Academy World Cup

The Barça Academy World Cup presented by Rakuten 2019 has concluded with the finals of the tournament being played on the FC Barcelona Miniestadi pitch.

Rafinha Alcántara was responsible for presenting the trophies to the four Champions and runners-up, after having distributed balls and shirts among the players who participated in the competition.

For the awards ceremony, he was accompanied by FC Barcelona manager, Xavier Vilajoana, and the director of the Barça Academy project, Carles Martín.

In this eighth edition, a total of 2,100 children between 6 and 14 years of age have participated, representing 23 countries and a total of 51 Barça Academies and Barça Academy Camps.

The winners of the four categories were teams from a different continent. In the U8 tournament, Barça Academy Lagos ended up defeating Barça Academy Camps Italia by a tight 3-2.

The only European victory came in the U10 tournament, Barça Escola Barcelona beating Barça Academy Warsaw on penalties after a 1-1 draw in normal time.

Barça Academy Katsushika U12s achieved the highest finish of a Japanese team in the history of the tournament, winning the final against Barça Academy PRO New York 2-1.

Barça Academy PRO New York U14s managed to go one better by winning 2-1 against a combative Barça Academy Lusaka who certainly didn’t look like tournament rookies.

In this edition, a total of 650 matches have been played, 10% more than the 592 of last season. Between the 188 teams a total of 2,543 goals were scored, which means an average of 3.55 per match.

It’s also the first time that there has been a champion from each of the continents.

Previously, in 2012, there was a winner from three different continents with victories for Barcelona (Europe); Siheung and Fukuoka (Asia), and for Vitoria de Bahia (America).