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Tony Harber
Published22nd Jul 2026, 00:00 BST
Wakefield’s new junior team Lala’s FC have tasted further success after being invited to play in a tournament at the home of Premier League giants Manchester City.
The team was featured in last week’s Express after it went from having no home and no previous experience to winning a prestigious junior football tournament to qualify for national finals.
And off the back of this Lala’s FC management got a call at late notice to fill in for a team that had pulled out of the UK Sports Coaching Best of the Best Tournament at the Manchester City Academy, at their Etihad Stadium.
Despite having only 12 hours notice, they agreed to take part and the youngsters were up at 8am with barely any sleep to travel over the Pennines.
And remarkably they went on to win every single game they played in the event, scoring 16 goals and conceding just four to be crowned overall champions of the whole tournament.
They beat teams representing Norway and Serbia along the way and produced some outstanding performances.