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Ireland West Airport are delighted to announce a new partnership with the Galway Cup - regarded as one of the leading underage tournaments in Europe. 

Played in Drom Soccer Park, Galway on immaculately manicured pitches, teams are provided with the stage to showcase their talents to coaches, scouts and an appreciative audience.  

This year’s Galway Cup runs from 7th to 10th August and will feature fifty teams competing in five sections; 2004 Premier, 2006 Elite, 2006 Club, 2007 Boys, 2004 Female (one day event). 

This will bring over 1000 players to Galway with countless coaches, managers, parents and friends flocking to town to watch the young starlets strut their stuff.  120 games will be played over the four days in what promises to be yet another great tournament. 

Commenting on the new partnership, Donal Healy, Head of Marketing, Ireland West Airport said, “The airport are delighted to have formed a new partnership with the team at the Galway Cup.  The tournament, now in its fifteenth year, has long been regarded as one of the leading underage tournaments in Europe and is now Ireland’s biggest underage soccer tournament.  Over the last number of years the airport have been fortunate to welcome many participating teams from the UK and Europe using the airport as their gateway to the tournament and this new partnership represents a good fit with our strategic focus aimed at further strengthening the airport’s links with the community.  As the West and North West of Irelands main international airport the support from the Galway region in particular for the airport has been fantastic over the past number of years, helping it to grow to an expected record high of 800,000 passengers in 2019. This partnership is the latest community based initiative to be rolled out by the airport to thank the Galway region for their continued support and it really is a top class event for kids to showcase their talents to an international audience of coaches, scouts and indeed football fans around the world”.

Tournament Director Ronan Gibney added, “We are delighted to have Ireland West Airport as a tournament partner and it points to the ongoing success of the Galway Cup.  We’re proud that the tournament has continued to grow each year, and we are striving to make the competition bigger and better all the time - with Salthill Devon’s fabulous Drom facility having been further developed ahead of this year’s tournament.  We’d like to invite anyone in Galway during the tournament to call up – you might just see the next soccer star in action!” 

Such stars who have appeared over the years include Spain’s Brahim Diaz (now of Real Madrid) who lit up the Galway cup with Malaga in 2012 and soon afterwards he moved to Manchester City as a fourteen-year-old.  The tournament has also featured Greg Cunningham (Cardiff City), Daryl Horgan (Hibernian), Conor Masterson (QPR and ex-Liverpool), Ryan Manning (QPR), Connor Wickham (Crystal Palace) and former player of the tournament Ben Knight who has just moved to Manchester City from Ipswich Town for £1m.

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