Malawi U-15 finish 79th in Baku, but boys have plenty to smile about

• The Under-15s ended their World Cup with a win over Rwanda. Coach Joseph Malizani says the real prize was the experience.

Nobody in Baku went home with a medal, but the Malawi Under-15s came back with plenty to be proud of.

The squad finished 15th in Tier C and 79th overall at the FIFA Under-15 World Cup & Festival in Azerbaijan, after beating Rwanda 2-0 in their final placement match.

Takutzwe Maluwe and Lameck Kamanga got the goals against Rwanda, a fitting way to end a tough campaign.

The win came just hours after a 6-2 defeat to Thailand, which had not been the send-off the boys wanted.

The rollercoaster

Malawi’s tournament had its highs and lows. The team scored 15 goals in 10 matches, and there were some proper moments of joy, including 2-0 over Hungary, 3-2 over Chinese Taipei, and 3-1 wins over both Oman and Suriname.

Those results helped them get out of a tough group.

The knockout stage was less kind. Luxembourg beat them 7-2 in the round of 16. The team then lost 4-0 to Algeria and 4-2 to Argentina. Earlier, Panama had won 4-0 and Thailand 6-2.

Coach Malizani said the squad had never been sent to Baku just to chase results. The plan was exposure.

“We have taken a lot of positives from the tournament,” he said. “We wanted the players to showcase their skills.”

Football Association of Malawi (Fam) President Fleetwood Haiya agreed.

He called the tournament “an important platform” for young players to learn, gain international exposure, and test themselves against some of the best young talent on the planet.

The scale of the event is worth noting. More than 3,000 young players from 189 countries took part.

Matches were eight-a-side and lasted 40 minutes, and every team played at least 10 games, with no one knocked out of the group stage. For a boy from Malawi, that is a lot of football on a very big stage.

For the players, the real test starts now: back home, back in club football, and back to work on the skills they picked up in Azerbaijan.

Baku may not have delivered a medal, but it gave Malawi a generation of young footballers who have seen what the world looks like.