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Footballers experience week-long Porto tour

24/04/2017 About 1 minute Share article:
Forty students from The Boswells School have returned from the school's biennial football tour, this time to Portuguese giants FC Porto.

The boys experienced a week of training and playing with the tour run following the successful trip to Espanyol in 2015.

The tour was open to Year 8, 9 and 10 students and enabled them to sample training and playing from a different perspective and different culture.

The boys had five training sessions at the official Porto training ground, Vitalis Park - a specialist facility built in place of the old stadium - with the Porto academy staff, followed by competitive games against the Porto Dragon Force academy sides.






The Boswells Year 8 team won 7-4, the Year 9 team won 9-1 with the Year 10 side going down to a narrow 5-3 defeat.

The boys also had a behind-the-scenes tour of Porto's Estadio de Dragao stadium and museum, and watched competitive top-flight action as Braga drew 3-3 with Maritimo in a top-six clash at Braga's iconic mountain stadium.





PE teacher Callum Ridgway said: "This is the second tour we have run now after Espanyol in 2015, and provided another fantastic opportunity for the boys to get some top-class coaching in a different environment.

"The Porto tour really is exceptional as the coaches, facilities, player-based food and even the Porto staff were all first class, and the boys trained and played really well, better than we could have hoped.

"Their behaviour and attitude representing the school was really good all week and made for an all-round brilliant tour."

The school will be running the tour again in 2019. More information will be available in September.






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