Soccer Coaching Blog | The Coaching Manual

How did the TopTekkers Championships International Finals go?

Written by The Coaching Manual | Aug 16, 2023 3:11:27 PM

Last week we hosted the first ever TopTekkers Championships International Finals - and the week-long event was a huge success!

Throughout 2022 we hosted a number of regional soccer camps across the US and UK, based around the TopTekkers training app, with players competing to qualify for our National and International final events.

Qualification for the latter stages of the TopTekkers Championships is achieved through a combination of on-field performance and in-app scores, so players are encouraged to put in the hard work away from the field, too.

At the end of last year, we hosted the first TopTekkers Championships US National Finals in Orlando, Florida. Check out the highlights below:

 

Children from all over the US took part, competing to become the National Champion, a title that was won by Bret from Wisconsin. Part of Bret's prize was a trip to Manchester, UK, for the very first INTERNATIONAL Finals event held on August 6-12, 2023.

Featuring players from the UK, US, Dubai, and more, the TopTekkers Championships International Finals 2023 began with a Sunday afternoon training session at the rooftop field on Hotel Football, overlooking Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium.

The next day, players were taken to the National Football Museum in Manchester, followed by a training session at Avro FC in Oldham, a club partner of The Coaching Manual. Here, the participants were joined by local players.

On Tuesday, the finalists were taken to Wolverhampton Wanderers' Molineux stadium for a tour and lunch, before a training session with Wolves U14 Head Coach.

Wednesday morning began with a guided tour of Manchester City's Etihad Stadium, followed by another training session at Avro FC run by The Coaching Manual.

On Thursday, the players were taken to Chester for some free time to explore the historic Roman city before a training session at Lilleshall - the former home of the FA's School of Excellence. Following that, the group stayed in the hotel on site at St George's Park, the current home of England football.

The following morning, they took part in another training session - at St George's Park - before heading north to Lancashire to watch Burnley v Manchester City on the opening day of the Premier League season at Turf Moor.

The final session including competition drills was hosted at Stockport Sports Village on the Saturday morning, followed by the trophy presentation.

It was there that Kendall from Florida was crowned the very first TopTekkers Championships International Final Grand Champion!

Congratulations to all the participants of the TopTekkers Championships International Final 2023 - it was a great week-long camp with some amazing talent on display - and unique memories created. Bring on 2024!

Learn more about the TopTekkers Championships, other events including in-person coach and player education, visit the Services section of our website here.

As well as guest coaches, The Coaching Manual's in-house team of highly-experienced coaches were with the finalists every step of the way. This included Paul Bright and Lee Fletcher - both UEFA A Licensed coaches, who between them have almost 40 years' experience working in roles at clubs and academies around the world including Manchester United, Manchester City, Real Madrid, and LA Galaxy.