UrBC, Yekaterinburg, September 11, 2017. Footballers from Russia’s Football Premier League are going to coordinate a workshop for winners of Metroshka, a children’s amateur football festival held by Russian Copper Company, the company press service reports.

Metroshka was the last round of the competition among children’s amateur teams. Thirty-six teams made it to the finals.

‘The festival has been coordinated by the Metro 74 newspaper for the 16th time this year; the event was held in seventeen towns in Sverdlovsk Region, Chelyabinsk Region, Bashkortostan, and - for the first time this year — Kurgan Region. We had to split the selective rounds of the championship in two stages: the first one was held in May and June, the second one in August and September. 270 teams (nearly 3,000 children in the 10-13 age group) could take part in the event. In some of the towns, girls competed alongside boys,’ the press service says.

According to Metroshka coordinators, children’s teams grow increasingly more professional every year, and young footballers from small towns prove particularly gifted.