Maccabi Tel Aviv’s under-13 team from the southern section have been named the inaugural outstanding team of the month by the club’s Youth Academy, a prize sponsored by Pizza Prego.

Academy heads Patrick van Leeuwen and Guy Zuckerman picked the side that train at Kiryat Shalom and the boys celebrated with a meal sponsored by Pizza Prego on Thursday.

The U13 South are the first team to win this special prize, and each month Van Leeuwen and Zuckerman will pick their outstanding team for the period.

Results were not necessarily the main factor in making the choice, rather, the behaviour of the boys and their achievements off the field of play too.

“Since the beginning of the year we have been impressed by the way the boys have behaved and trained and by their demeanour when they arrive for training and when they leave at the end of their session,” Zuckerman said.

“These will be the criteria that we will use to determine our outstanding teams, whether at Kiryat Shalom or at our northern base at the university.”

Zuckerman added that “cooperation with Pizza Prego has been very fruitful from our perspective, and we are very pleased that we can reward the kids and give them a good feeling. It helps team bonding and shows commitment by both parties.”

U13S are coached by Tamir Tubul, his assistant is Tom Shalom and goalkeeping coach is Eliad Graf.

The team have registered three wins in their three league outings this season, a 2-0 away win over Maccabi Petah Tikva, a 7-0 home win over Ramat Hasharon and a 3-1 away win over Maccabi Beersheba. They also scored a whopping 9-1 win over Ironi Modiin in the State Cup.