| Fadhil Yunus |
BRUNEI Darussalam young footballers Muhammad Danish Izz Syahmi bin Md Bahrin and Mohd Danish Ataullah bin Md Riduwan attended the opening ceremony of the 2018 FIFA World Cup at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia recently.
The Projek Ikan Pusu (PIP) duo, who reportedly the country’s youngest spectators in this edition’s World Cup, also witnessed the first match between host nation Russia and Saudi Arabia which the former won 5-0.
The opening ceremony of the FIFA World Cup was the final event in the itinerary of the global Football for Friendship (F4F) programme, which is supported by FIFA and Gazprom.
The young ambassadors have joined children from across the world involving 211 countries during the programme which coincidentally also marked the first time that Brunei Darussalam has been represented.
The main highlight of the F4F Friendship Programme was the Gazprom Football for Friendship International Championship which was won by Chimpanzee after defeating Komodo Dragon 2-1 in the final.
The role of Muhammad Danish Izz Syahmi as a young journalist was to spread awareness of the nine pertinent values namely friendship, equality, fairness, health, peace, devotion, victory, traditions and honour of the F4F programme.
Meanwhile, Mohd Danish Ataullah, who plays as a goalkeeper, had the rare experience of playing alongside children from across the world in one of the 32 international teams during the tournament.
As part of the programme, the young duo also participated in the Sixth Football for Friendship International Children’s Forum at Moskvarium, the largest indoor oceanarium in Europe.
The forum was graced by high-profiled names such as Spain goalkeeping legend Iker Casillas, Aleksandr Kerzhakov, Russia’s most prolific goal-scorer with 232 goals and currently the head coach of his nation’s under-17 team and Syria forward Firas Al-Khatib.
“Gazprom, being one of the most social-oriented companies in the world, has always been supporting the promotion of children’s sports,” said the Chairman of Board of Directors of Gazprom Viktor Zubkov.