Packie Bonner to launch Galway Cup

This Tuesday sees the launch of the Galway Cup at the National University of Ireland, Galway where Republic of Ireland goalkeeping legend Packie Bonner will be on hand to unveil the 10th instalment of the tournament.

A staunch supporter of the cup since its inception, the Italia '90 penalty-shootout hero will be on hand once again to give grassroots football the attention it deserves.

Kicking off on August 6th and running for four days, teams from an exciting variety of countries will converge on Galway City to showcase their up-and-coming talent.

Taking place in Drom Soccer Park, the home of Salthill Devon, 57 teams will compete across a wide range of age brackets in which over 1,000 players will participate in 120 games.

However, the primary focus of the competition will focus on the Elite Section for boys born in 1999 where six countries will be represented.

Here, clubs such as England's Ipswich Town and Scunthorpe United, the MLS' DC United, Mexico's Chivas Guadalajara as well as Israel's Maccabi Haifa will compete alongside the Irish National Squad for silverware.

Most notably, previous winners of the Galway Cup include such well-known names as Glasgow Celtic, Leicester City and Dynamo Moscow.

Sponsored by Macron, this will be a great opportunity for the cream of Ireland's talent to exhibit their skills and talent to a wide audience.

As well as this, it'll also be a great opportunity for fans to see some of the best young players around before some of them, no doubt, eventually make it to the big-time.

Speaking ahead of the launch, a Salthill Devon spokesman said: “It's an ideal opportunity to showcase Galway and the University with the Macron Cup as the centrepiece.”