News

On the eve of the 54th U19 Champions Trophy, which takes place over the Easter weekend in Düsseldorf, Japanese tire maker, Toyo Tires welcomed the Japanese High School Selection Football team to their offices along with the Mayor of Willich, Josef Heyes.

Toyo Tires are the Japanese team sponsors as well as Premium Sponsors of the U19 tournament.
The company prepared a warm welcome to Germany for the players and coaching staff who arrived from their training camp in the Netherlands. President of Toyo Tire Europe, Kenta Kuribayashi, welcomed the delegation, wishing the team success in the forthcoming championship. In return, the team presented a signed shirt to the president, thanking Toyo Tires for their support.

After lunch at the offices of Toyo Tires Europe, the 36 players and staff, were addressed by the Mayor of Willich who gave a short speech before he too, was presented with one of the team's signed shirts.

All the players then signed a Toyo Proxes tire as a souvenir of their visit. A ritual that will be repeated in future years as Toyo Tire Europe intend to continue their support of the U19 Champions Trophy. Some of the team are already rising stars in Japan so it may not be long before one of these signatures belongs to a Bundesliga or Premier League player.

Mats Hummels, the German national team captain and Thomas Müller from the Bundesliga are former participants. Premiership stars like Memphis Depay and Bastian Schweinsteiger have also competed in this international proving ground for footballing talent.

Before leaving, each member of the team was presented with a typical german Easter gift of a chocolate rabbit.

The U19 Champions Trophy commences on Thursday 24 March with the opening match between FC Köln and BV04 Düsseldorf kicking off at 7PM.

The Japanese team are in action shortly after, with their first game scheduled to start at 20.15 against Fortuna Düsseldorf.

The championship will be an exciting battle between these teams of future stars from clubs around the world. Toyo Tires, as premium sponsor, will reporting daily as the championshoip progress until the final on Easter monday, March 28.