CHENNAI: As many as seven players from Chennai of the 12 players are participating in the Gothia Youth Football World Cup, beginning today and going on till July 19 in Sweden.

Playing in the ‘under 16’ category, the players are set to compete with teams from multiple countries after receiving invitation from the International Youth Cup Tournament under FIFA.

The seven players representing Chennai are R Ben Stephen, Jeremy Ryan Stephen, Hanniel Timotheus, G Remeil Stephen, Rohin Roque, Abhinav Jhayaram and Shanav Jhayaram. Two more players represent Kerala and four from Nagpur.

The players from the Shining Star Life Sports Academy are set to play Makedonikos FC from Greece, Tune IL Football 2 from Norway and Landvetter IS from Sweden. Speaking to DT Next, EKS Rajamohan Elias, father of Ben Stephen, who is debuting in the world cup, “I’m delighted my son is participating in the world cup. This will expand his international exposure and crave him as a player.”

The Gothia Cup is the world’s largest youth football tournament with 1,800 teams from 70 counties each year. However, this year, 1,943 teams from 76 countries are participating, where 4,862 matches will be played in 117 fields in Sweden.