Elite Kids Cup: Three Days When Stara Zagora Belonged to the Kids

Ask an eight-year-old what they remember from a football tournament and you might hear about a goal, a new friend or the first time they walked onto the pitch in their club's shirt. From 5 to 7 September, Stara Zagora gave children plenty of those moments. The first Elite Kids Cup brought together teams born in 2018 and 2019 at the Beroe sports complex. The organisers built the event around playing time, fair play and the chance to meet new opponents.

The scale was impressive for a first edition: local coverage reported more than 300 young footballers across 32 teams. Among them were familiar Bulgarian clubs and academies, but every shirt carried the same excitement for the child wearing it.

U8 and U9 Elite Kids Cup champions crowned in Stara Zagora

There were champions to celebrate. FC Kronos A finished as U8 title holders, while FC Orleta Blagoevgrad took the U9 title. For hundreds of other children, the weekend meant something just as lasting: testing themselves against a new team, finding their place alongside teammates and having a match to talk about on the journey home.

Read more: Six things Torneo.com does that most tournament software doesn’t

Torneo by Sofascore behind a busy youth tournament weekend

Making all that happen takes work behind the touchline. Organisers Stilian Neychev and Todor Germanov, with support from the city and Beroe's youth academy, had two age groups and a packed schedule to bring together. Torneo by Sofascore gave them one place to manage fixtures, brackets, standings and results. The U8 and U9 competitions could then be followed on Sofascore, making it easier for families to find the next match or check how their team did.

That visibility matters at this age. A grandparent who could not make the trip can still follow a team's results. A child can find their club on the same platform they use to follow football's biggest competitions. Years from now, they may forget the score of a particular game. They are much less likely to forget how it felt to be part of it.

Follow the U8 Elite Kids Cup and U9 Elite Kids Cup on Sofascore.

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