The Katoni Cup returned to Aberdeen Sports Village on Saturday afternoon for its sixth edition of the 5 a side futsal tournament hosted by the AFC Youth Academy.

The tournament made possible by the backing of title sponsors Katoni for a sixth-year running has become a staple of the Youth Academy calendar in recent years.

Featuring of some of the best youth academies in the country, the Under 12 tournament featured Celtic, Rangers, Dundee, Hearts, Hibs, Ross County and Hamilton alongside the Dons who were backed by a loud support on the balcony throughout the afternoon. Aberdeen delivered three first class performances during the group phase, starting with a victory in the opening fixture against a strong Celtic side who were tightly edged out, Aberdeen coming through as 2-1 winners against the three-time Katoni Cup champions.

After a short break the opening game win was backed up with a flawless 8-0 dismantling over Hamilton Academical, where Gavi Osula grabbed a hat-trick and Calan Freeland went one better by finding the back of the net four times during the 15-minute match. Almost immediately after was the test of winless Ross County who were looking to end the group with a positive result after suffering defeats against Celtic and Hamilton. There was no respite for the Staggies however and the young Dons closed out their group in style winning 6-0, the pick of the goals being a superbly placed freekick into the stanchion curtsey of the skipper, Ollie Elrick.

Three impressive results meant Aberdeen topped group B, with Celtic coming through as runners up. Across in group A it was Dundee who took the crown after getting the better of both Hearts and Hibernian, before closing their group with a draw against Rangers. It was Rangers who would also progress as runners up, despite their only win coming against Hearts.

The two semi-final ties for the cup involved Dundee taking on Celtic, and Aberdeen playing Rangers. For the plate, Hibernian took on Ross County, and Hearts Hamilton.The semi-finals saw Gavi continuing his strong run of form to spearhead another strong Aberdeen performance where they showed enough to edge out Rangers by four goals to one, setting up a rematch of the tournament opener against Celtic in the final after they got the better of Dundee 6-3.In the plate bracket, it was Ross County and Hearts who advanced to set up the second final.

It was to be Aberdeen who would be lifting the Katoni Cup come the end of the afternoon after an exceptional performance saw them defeat Celtic 7-1 to win the tournament in style. The young Dons were 3-0 to the good just five minutes into the twenty-minute final before Gavi added another two to claim his second hat-trick of the day. Calan added one more to put the icing on the cake to complete a great day for the Youth Academy. Hearts were the winners of the Katoni plate after defeating Ross County in their final, Hamilton victors in the 7th v 8th place playoff. Rangers got the better of Dundee at the second time of asking, defeating the Dee to win the 3rd place play off. 

Ollie Elrick was awarded player of the tournament, and the Ross County goalkeeper received the acclaim of being voted the best keeper on the day. The young Dons were delighted with their achievement come the end of the tournament and they had every right to feel proud after a great victory on a day where the standard of play was so high throughout from all teams. A massive thank you also to Katoni Engineering for their continued support of the AFC Youth Academy and for helping to make the day a success.