If the Helsinki Cup win ended unfinished business<\/a> from last year, the Gothia Cup was about proving they belonged at the top. Against another strong international field, Minerva once again showed why they have become one of the most respected youth academies outside Europe.<\/p>\nKipgen Thangsanglen gave Minerva the lead before Mekhamkhraw Nongrem restored their advantage with a superbly struck free-kick after the Brazilian side had levelled. The youngsters then held firm to secure a second successive Gothia Cup crown.<\/p>\n
The latest success continues a remarkable run for the academy, which has spent the past two summers making headlines across Europe with a string of dominant performances and trophy-winning campaigns.<\/p>\n
MINERVA’S WORLD YOUTH CUP RUN<\/p>\n
Minerva barely slowed down throughout the tournament, scoring freely from the group stage before overcoming their toughest challenge in the knockout rounds.<\/p>\n
Group Stage<\/p>\n
Beat Prep Schools Pumas Blue (England) 12-0<\/p>\n
Beat Lillestrom SK 3 (Norway) 13-1<\/p>\n
Beat Surte IS FK (Sweden) 16-0<\/p>\n
Round of 64<\/p>\n
Beat Legacy Academy (Kenya) 6-2<\/p>\n
Round of 32<\/p>\n
Beat Prep Schools Lions (England) 10-1<\/p>\n
Round of 16<\/p>\n
Beat OFC Couronnes (France) 17-1<\/p>\n
Quarter-final<\/p>\n
Beat Cancheritos FC (Bolivia) 8-0<\/p>\n
Semi-final<\/p>\n
Beat FC Lokomotyv Kyiv (Ukraine) 3-2<\/p>\n
Final<\/p>\n
Beat RS Sports Yellow (Brazil) 2-1<\/p>\n
The only real scare came in the semi-finals against FC Lokomotyv Kyiv, but Minerva found another gear when it mattered most before finishing the job against Brazilian opposition in the title clash.<\/p>\n
Photo: Minvera\/Instagram\n<\/p>\n
EUROPEAN DOMINANCE CONTINUES<\/p>\n
The Gothia Cup title carries extra significance because Minerva arrived in Sweden as defending champions.<\/p>\n
Rather than being weighed down by that expectation, they embraced it. The academy retained one of the world\u2019s biggest youth football trophies only days after finally conquering the Helsinki Cup, where they had fallen short in last year\u2019s final.<\/p>\n
The back-to-back titles add to an extraordinary spell in Europe that already includes triumphs at the Norway Cup and Dana Cup, while their 6-0 victory over Liverpool\u2019s Under-15 side at the Mediterranean International Cup earlier this year underlined the level this group has consistently reached.<\/p>\n
What once looked like isolated upsets are now becoming a pattern. Wherever Minerva have travelled in Europe over the past two years<\/a>, they have returned with performances\u2014and increasingly trophies\u2014that continue to raise the bar for Indian youth football.<\/p>\n– Ends<\/p>\n
Published By: <\/p>\n
Kingshuk Kusari<\/p>\n
Published On: <\/p>\n
Jul 18, 2026 17:24 IST<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"India\u2019s Minerva Academy Under-12 boys have added another major international title to their growing collection, successfully defending the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[87],"tags":[158,60316,113,60315,60399,63968,63969],"class_list":["post-131527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-helsinki","tag-finland","tag-gothia-cup","tag-helsinki","tag-helsinki-cup","tag-minerva-academy","tag-minerva-under-12","tag-minvera-academy-final-result"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116941440078108810","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}