Recently Ten South Coast Soccer Players volunteered and were chosen to be ball boys and flag bearers at the Asian Cup.

This is quite an honour as the Asian cup was televised worldwide to an audience of over 2 billion people.

The boys had to attend training sessions and be at games up to four hours before kick off  throughout the tournament in January.

The plus side was  getting to stand inside stadiums with over 20000 screaming fans and some of the biggest names in world Football.

Oscar Plenkovich was one of the flag bearers for The Iran v Bahrain game.

“It was amazing hearing the crowd roar as we entered the stadium. The players were right behind us and you could hear them pumping each other up”.

Jasper Kempster was the ball boy positioned right in between the coaches boxes, “ It was pretty intense especially when the game was close, but I couldn’t understand anything they were saying”.

The Asian Cup was lifted by Australia on the weekend and hailed a success with over six hundred thousand fans attending games throughout the tournament.

Paul Plenkovich a local coach coach who helped organised the event said,

"It was great to see local kids being involved on the world stage and them experiencing an  amazing mix of culture from countries all over Asia."

The success has already had an impact, with local clubs reporting a lot of interest from junior players wanting to get involved.

Well done to all  the boys involved an experience I’m sure you will never forget.