With a packed Ullevi Stadium and participants from 74 countries, Gothia Cup 2025 began with a grand opening ceremony. This year, the event held special significance – the tournament is celebrating 50 years as a meeting place for young people from around the world.
Gothia Cup kicked off with a spectacular opening ceremony at Ullevi – a traditional gathering point that carried special significance this year as the tournament celebrates its 50th anniversary. On Monday evening, 43 850 participants, coaches, families, and spectators filled Ullevi to celebrate the beginning of the jubilee week together.
For just over an hour, Ullevi buzzed with music, dance, tribute speeches, and an impressive flag parade featuring flags from all the countries that have participated over the years – before the evening concluded with a dazzling fireworks display.
With that, Gothia Cup 2025 is officially underway, and the tournament’s event director, Anders Albertsson, is pleased with this year’s opening.
– It’s hard to describe the feeling when more than 40 000 people share the same joy – this year’s ceremony was a worthy start to a historic jubilee. The enthusiasm from both participants and the audience tonight shows why Gothia Cup is so much more than just a football tournament, he says.
The opening ceremony is one of the tournament’s most anticipated moments and serves as a symbolic launch for a week filled with international encounters, community, and the joy of football. This year, the opening ceremony was both a tribute to its history and a shared look toward the future.
– It was a moment to honor the past and to remind ourselves of all the work and dedication that came before us, says tournament director Lena Rönnefors. But above all, to unite around the greater purpose – to be a meeting place for young people from all over the world.
Gothia Cup is the world’s largest and most international youth football tournament. Each year, around 1900 teams from 75 nations take part and play almost 5000 games on 140 pitches. Gothia Cup is a meeting place for the world’s youth, irrespective of religion, ethnicity or nationality, with football as the common denominator.
