Brentford represented at Truce Tournament | OneFootball

Brentford Under-12s rounded out 2024 by competing in the Truce Tournament in a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”.

Held in Ypres, Belgium, the tournament saw some of the world’s best academies come together to commemorate the World War I Christmas truce, where opposing sides laid down their weapons, some choosing to play a game of football.

Across four days, competing clubs stood on the WWI battlegrounds, the location of the infamous football match, walked through trenches and tried on WWI uniforms, all while being educated on the war and gaining an understanding of what was sacrificed.

They then turned their attention to two days of competition, with a busy schedule of games seeing Brentford qualify for the semi-finals through group stage games before eventually finishing fourth.

“You’ve got to remember some of our boys would never have been away from their parents before, may have never travelled abroad before, and possibly didn’t have an understanding of what the truce even meant,” said Academy head of education Ryan Peters.

“These are opportunities that don’t necessarily come around very often and they definitely utilised it.”

The group joined Arsenal, Brighton, Liverpool, Manchester City, Middlesbrough, Newcastle and Southampton at the tournament, with Genk, Bayer Leverkusen, Anderlecht and Toulouse also in the competition.

While clubs could qualify through their results in games, three English clubs were also awarded a spot thanks to their education project based on this year’s theme - Power In Pals.

Brentford joined Brighton and Middlesbrough in qualifying through their project in the club’s first-ever attempt.

As part of the project, the U12s undertook a workshop led by Big Ideas on behalf of the Premier League. They had a team photo taken as well as a video made which outlined their experiences, a recruitment poster and they volunteered at The Open Kitchen, a community kitchen for those affected by food poverty in west London.

Projects from clubs across England were shown to Premier League officials, the Mayor of Ypres and other distinguished guests during a celebration evening at the tournament.

Max Hunter, Ethan Sousa Da Conceicao, Alenso Aliaj and Rocco Bramble then presented a poem to the room, while wearing Brentford jerseys with WWI soldiers’ names who played for the club on the back.

Come game day, the young Bees started off the group stage fixtures in fine fashion, defeating Liverpool 2-1 and Brighton 1-0.

Their first loss came against a talented Toulouse side, with the French side winning 2-0, before Brentford bounced back to beat Middlesbrough 1-0.

The final group stage game saw the young Bees face eventual tournament finalists Anderlecht and the Belgian side ran out 2-0 winners in an entertaining affair.

Brentford ended Saturday’s proceedings second in Group B with nine points, edging out Toulouse in third who finished on eight. It set up a semi-final clash with Southampton, who topped Group A with 10 points.

Sunday morning saw the young Bees put up a gallant effort, however, they lost 1-0 to the young Saints, who went on to defeat Anderlecht in the final.

Brentford concluded the tournament with a clash against Newcastle to decide the third and fourth placings, the Magpies winning 2-0.

Speaking after the tournament, U11-U12 head coach Shane Dunne said he and fellow coach Georgie Van Dijk “could not have been prouder of the players”.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them, from the education side to playing against the quality of teams in which we did was an outstanding achievement,” he explained.

“From the coaches’ perspective, we couldn’t have asked for any more of the boys, we definitely knew we had the capabilities within the squad, there’s a lot of talented young players.

“I couldn’t be any prouder of the boys and from me and Georgie’s point of view, it was just unbelievable.”

The tournament was an early indication of the strong work being done in the younger age groups at the club, in what is the first year as a fully-fledged academy from U9s through to U21s.

Dunne said the competition provided a great test for his players so early on in their academy careers.

“They’ve only been in the academy properly three to four months, so for them to get that games programme in Belgium was really incredible,” he added.

“That trip gives us so much belief that we belong at this level, that we can compete at this level, and we can even flourish at this level.

“We believe in what we’re doing and we try and play a certain style and it was great to see the players implement that style.”