The event, which concluded with the Prince’s final public walk about of his one week tour of New Zealand, marked two weeks until the biggest celebration of global football ever seen in New Zealand, kicks off across the country.
Over 300 invited guests, mostly from local schools. packed into the Auckland waterfront venue to see the Prince take part in a five-a-side football match.
HRH Prince Harry captained the New Zealand team against an All Stars side captained by Adam Mitchell, who was only yesterday confirmed in New Zealand’s U-20 squad for the FIFA U-20 World Cup.
Refereeing the match was former All White Ivan Vicelich, Bronze Ball winner at last year’s FIFA Club World Cup and an ambassador for the FIFA U-20 World Cup.
Upon arrival guests were transformed into supporters of either team, with face painting and team flags before being entertained with a freestyle football demonstration from Olly Bowman while awaiting the arrival of HRH Prince Harry and The Rt. Honorable John Key, Prime Minister of New Zealand.
As the crowd warmed up, the Black Swans Girls team from Western Springs AFC participated in a keepy-uppy skills training session with the Prince and Adam Mitchell.
The pair then entered the football arena through a tunnel lined with the flags of all 24 nations competing in the FIFA U-20 World Cup.
After the Prime Minister’s coin toss, the two captains and their teams, made up of players from Western Springs AFC, battled it out for almost 15 minutes in front of hundreds of excited children from St Mary’s, St Heliers and Westmere primary schools.
The script couldn’t have been written better with Prince Harry scoring the winning goal in a narrow 8-7 victory for the New Zealand team.
Following the match, the players, flag bearers and eight lucky volunteers who will assist at the FIFA U-20 World Cup, were granted a private audience with the Prince in the function area of The Cloud.
The opposing captain, Adam Mitchell said it had been a fantastic experience.
“It was a once in a lifetime chance to play in a game with Prince Harry, the guys played hard against him but that final goal was pretty amazing, he even got some air. It was great to have him out here to help support the tournament and we’re really looking forward to the kick off against Ukraine on 30 May.”
After the invite-only event, Prince Harry took time to greet waiting fans outside The Cloud with a 15 minute walkabout, concluding his final public engagement during his visit to New Zealand.
Dave Beeche, CEO FIFA U-20 World Cup 2015 said the event had been a fantastic way to celebrate the final countdown to FIFA’s second biggest male tournament coming to NZ.
“It’s been wonderful having Prince Harry here to celebrate with us, he really has won the hearts of the people during his visit and today we could see why. He was such a great sport and the children were so excited to see him up close playing football.”
Over 2,000 people crammed into Queens Wharf for the public event and Mr Beeche said the visit was also a great opportunity to further highlight the significance of the FIFA U-20 World Cup which will bring some of the world’s greatest emerging talent to New Zealand in a three-week festival of global football kicking off at Auckland’s North Harbour Stadium on 30 May.
The first match featuring New Zealand v Ukraine is already 75 per cent sold and Mr Beeche said Kiwi sports fans were really starting to understand how big the event is.
“New Zealander’s are unlikely to see this level of football again for a very long time, many of the players coming are already on big contracts in Europe, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime event.”
24 teams will participate in the FIFA U-20 World Cup 2015 across seven Host Cities over 22 days.
For more on the FIFA U-20 World Cup visit FIFA.com