Red Bull Neymar Jr.’s Five, a globally established five-on-five football tournament kicked off the Jaipur qualifiers at Sports Villa in Jaipuron 12 th and13 th March 2022. The city qualifier witnessed over 63teams giving their best. In the final match, Penaldo FC played CFC and won the game 4-0 to grab a place and represent Jaipur in the national finals on 30 th April.
Red Bull Neymar Jr’s Five 2022city qualifiers started from 12 th March till10 th April across 19 cities in the country including Indore, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Dimapur, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Delhi, Guwahati, Jalandhar, Pune, Cochin, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Goa and Shillong. The winning teams will then compete at the Red Bull Neymar Jr’s Five national finals in May 2022 for a chance to make it to the Red Bull Neymar Jr’s Five 2022 World Finals in Qatar for the first time ever. It is the biggest 5-a-side football tournament in the country in-terms of locations & participants.
Winners of the city qualifiers will compete in the national final, where the ultimate winner will be declared the Red Bull Neymar Jr’s Five India champions and get a chance to compete in the world finals in Qatar, where they will get to meet superstar footballer Neymar Jr. This year, there’s also an added twist, with all the teams that had qualified for the cancelled 2021 event being invited back to compete in the World Finals, which will be hosted by Qatar for the first time.
Amateur teams from all over the globe get the chance to participate and represent their country during the World Final and win a unique experience: to play against Neymar Jr in the “Super Final”. Winning teams of 2021 and 2022 edition will be traveling for World Finals. For the first time ever, it also opens up the tantalising prospect of ‘derby’ matches – where two teams from the same country could go head-to-head against each other.
“It’s been a long wait, but finally we’ll get to see some fantastic teams from around the world coming together this year,” said an excited Neymar Jr. “I can’t wait to see who comes out on top in this special ‘Super Final’. It’s always an exciting challenge to take on the tournament champions,” added the 30-year-old forward. “They get the chance to try a few of their tricks on me, and I reply with a few of mine. It’s just great fun for everyone involved.”
It’s shaping up to be a fascinating year of football for Neymar Jr, who is still hunting trophies with Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1 and the Champions League. Then, before he returns to Qatar later in the year to try and fire Brazil to glory at the World Cup, he’ll join the planet’s best amateur players for this tournament at Qatar Foundation – a non-profit organization made up of more than 50 entities working in education, research, and community development.