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This biennial tournament features the best of Under-17 sides from Europe and Africa, last held in South Africa where Spain beat Ghana in the final.
This year a unique format was adopted whereby players represented both continent and country with each nation playing only teams from the other continent. Points gained were then added up to determine the continental winner.
In addition to gold medals for all players from the winning continent there was the Meridian Cup for the best team, awards for the top team from each continent, the top scorer, the best goalkeeper and a Fair Play trophy.
Teams
Africa: Cameroon, Mali, Ghana, Nigeria
Europe: Italy (host), Spain (holder), Portugal, Czech Republic
The Egyptian Football Association will host the next edition of the Meridian Cup, in Cairo 2003.
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This year the tournament ended with an all-star gala match on February 2, featuring football legends from the two continents aged between 35 and 45 years. In 1997, at the end of the inaugural tournament held in Lisbon, the African All-Stars had the beating of the European XI. (Europe decided not to send an all-star team in the 1999 event held in South Africa).
The purpose of this gala match is to collect funds for the development projects which are held within the UEFA/CAF Meridian partnership project.
The All-Star Match was played in the Stadio San Nicola in Bari and resulted in a 4-0 win for Europe.
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ALL-STAR PLAYERS |
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EUROPE |
AFRICA |
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Thomas RAVELLI (Sweden) |
Ahmed SHOBEIR (Egypt) |
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Borislav MIHAILOV (Bulgaria) |
Thomas N’KONO (Cameroon) |
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Roland NILSSON (Sweden) |
Stephen TATAW (Cameroon) |
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Pietro VIERCHOWOD (Italy) |
Stephen KESHI (Nigeria) |
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Guido BUCHWALD (Germany) |
Augustine EGUAVON (Nigeria) |
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Bernard CASONI (France) |
Taoufik HECHIRI (Tunisia) |
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Moreno MANNINI (Italy) |
François AMEGASSE (Gabon) |
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Bruno CONTI (Italy) |
Idrissa TRAORE (Mali) |
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Sergei ALEINIKOV (Belarus) |
Abedi PELÉ (Ghana) |
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Frank RIJKAARD (Netherlands) |
Ismail YOUSSEF (Egypt) |
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Michael LAUDRUP (Denmark) |
Zied TLEMCANI (Tunisia) |
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Hansi MÜLLER (Germany) |
Abdoulaye TRAORE (Ivory Coast) |
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Fausto SALSANO (Italy) |
ABDUL RAZAK Karim (Ghana) |
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Dariusz DZIEKANOWSKI (Poland) |
Ahmed EL KASS (Egypt) |
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Bruno GIORDANO (Italy) |
Mohamed TIMOUMI (Morocco) |
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Fernando GOMES (Potugal) |
Rabah MADJER (Algeria) |
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Maurizio IORIO (Italy) |
Lakhdar BELLOUMI (Algeria) |
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Alessandro ALTOBELLI (Italy) |
Jules BOCANDE (Senegal) |
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Youssouf FOFANA (Ivory Coast) |
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Roger MILLA (Cameroon) |
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Head Coaches |
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Marcello LIPPI (Italy) |
Abdel Majid CHETALI (Tunisia) |
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