“Turbo for Talents” – the Porsche Football Cup is one of the core activities within the Porsche Youth Development Programme and has been supporting the sporting, social and personal development of up-and-coming athletes for the past five years. A success factor of the U-15 tournament is the high-class line-up. Alongside title-holders FC Barcelona plus FC Bayern München (U-14) and VfL Wolfsburg, the Porsche Youth Development’s partner clubs – VfB Stuttgart, Red Bull Football Academy Salzburg, Borussia Mönchengladbach, FC Erzgebirge Aue and SV Stuttgarter Kickers – will be competing for the coveted trophy. The VfB Stuttgart club will be hosting the event for the third time.
“Organising the Porsche Football Cup is a real pleasure because it brings together young talents, promotes top class sporting performances and boosts values like respect, commitment and team spirit, both on and off the pitch. At the same time, we create a platform enabling people – players, coaches and families – to experience a sense of community,” says Daniel Teufel, the Director of the VfB Stuttgart Football Academy. Title-holders Barcelona also has every reason to contest the U-15 tournament once again. “For our players, it always provides valuable experience and is an excellent opportunity to develop youngsters away from Catalonia. We’re convinced that the tournament will contribute in a big way to the growth of our team,” says Alex Fernández, the coach of FC Barcelona’s U-15s.
Activities for the whole family
Awaiting fans off the pitch are refreshment stalls and a number of activities they can try their hands at. Visitors can display their own footballing skills and compete against each other on the goal target wall and at table football. Porsche partner clubs will also invite people to have a go at other sports. The Porsche Basketball Academy – the elite academy at the local MHP RIESEN Ludwigsburg club – will present a variety of basketball activities. The Bietigheim-Bissingen Steelers will organise an ice-hockey shooting practice session.
Celebrity guests in attendance
Football World Cup winner and Porsche Youth Development Programme Brand Ambassador Sami Khedira will be attendance on both days of the U-15 tournament. He will also draw the groups and be present at the victory ceremony. “For all the stakeholders, the Porsche Football Cup is a project close to our hearts, and it should advance the ideas involved in coaching youngsters. It makes it special and makes it stand out above other fantastic tournaments” says the former VfB player. “It’s great that we will be welcoming eight high-class international teams to Stuttgart this year, and that we’ll be able to watch some brilliant football. The tournament thrills all age groups.” The VfB mascot going by the name of “Fritzle” will be cheering on the talented youngsters and be available for fans to have their photos taken with him.
Live on SPORT1 and in Porsche Newsroom
In collaboration with the SPORT1 television channel, the junior competition will be televised live with a German commentary. On Saturday, 6 September, six group matches on Pitch 1 will be shown on sport1.de from 10 o’clock onwards and streamed on SPORT1’s YouTube channel. On Sunday, 7 September, a semifinal, the third and fifth place play-offs will be broadcast as will the final in the Robert Schlienz Stadium at 1.45 pm – also in sport1.de and on SPORT1’s YouTube channel. The final will also be screened in linear television in SPORT1. The channel’s so-called “Doppelpass” pundit show on Sunday will transmit live from the Porsche Football Cup.
Extensive coverage will also be available in the Porsche Newsroom at www.porschefußballcup.de. In addition to the latest news, there will also be images and videos plus the tournament schedule and results on the tournament’s web site.
Goals for a good cause
The focus will also be on the social aspect of the Porsche Youth Development Programme. As a part of the “Goals for Charity” fundraiser, Porsche will donate 400 euro for each goal scored to the “Stiftung OlympiaNachwuchs Baden-Württemberg”. The foundation is committed to the sustained support of up-and-coming sportsmen and women and accompanies young athletes on their paths to the Olympic Games. A central aspect is thereby the compatibility of elite sport with an academic education or vocational training. Since its foundation in 2000, it has supported over 500 talented youngsters.
CSR projects under the motto “Talents Hand in Hand”
Within the scope of the “Talents Hand in Hand” initiative, the teams will once take part in a CSR activity this year in order to come into contact with social-ecological topics at an early point in time. Ahead of the tournament, they will absolve a practice session together with the charitable so-called “Bunt kickt gut” initiative. Its aim is to bring together children, youths and adults belonging to differing cultural and social heritages via an intercultural street football league.
The Porsche Kids’ Day last weekend marked the start of the tournament week. Twenty-two children and their carers from the voluntary “Caleidoskop Caritasverband für Stuttgart e.V.” centre and the “Eberhard-Ludwig-Schule Ludwigsburg” – a special needs educational and advice centre with a focus on learning abilities – enjoyed a day full of action at VfB. After a tour around the MHP Arena, the programme included a practice session at the VfB Academy where VfB’s U-19 players Robin Dittrich and Ivan Knezevic plus Pia Neuwirth, a member of VfB Stuttgart’s women’s second team, gave a helping hand. The highlight was the visit to VfB Stuttgart’s Bundesliga match against Borussia Mönchengladbach whereby the children escorted the teams out onto the pitch and celebrated the home side’s 1-0 win.
“Turbo for Talents” – the Porsche Youth Development Programme
Porsche takes its societal responsibility seriously and invests specifically in the future via the Porsche Youth Development Programme. Under the motto “Turbo for Talents”, Porsche commits itself to helping youngsters in a variety of sports. In football, there are partnerships with SV Stuttgarter Kickers, the Red Bull Football Academy, Borussia Mönchengladbach, VfB Stuttgart and FC Erzgebirge Aue. In the sport of ice-hockey, Porsche helps foster juniors at the Bietigheim Steelers club. In basketball, Porsche lends its name to the Ludwigsburg Porsche Basketball Academy (BBA) – the elite training centre for the MHP RIESEN Ludwigsburg club. The commitment is not just about supporting high-quality sports coaching but also developing young people socially and personally. Through its “Talents Hand in Hand” initiative, Porsche, together with its partner clubs and social institutions, also conveys values like tolerance, passion and respect to young people. It also promotes the embracing of topics like inclusion, environmental awareness and health. The famous patron of the Youth Development Programme is the football World Cup winner Sami Khedira. Information about the highly diverse programme can be found at www.turbofürtalente.de.