Star Sports launched its latest sporting venture ‘Young Heroes’ presented by Parle and in association with IDBI Federal Life Insurance to handpick the 16 most talented football players from schools from 15 different cities. It is a 7 a side U-15 school football tournament.
The tournament finished its second stage in Chennai with St. Joseph’s Residential School defeating Yuva Bharati Public School 3 – 0 in the finals. The mega football tournament will travel to 13 other Indian cities. Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kochi, Goa, Indore, Pune, Mumbai, Shillong, Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Chandigarh and Delhi will host the inaugural season, with Bangalore being the next venue.
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1500 Indian schools will be taking part in this competition out of which 650 schools will be shortlisted for the playoffs. A total of 4, 20,000 students are estimated to play at the tournament, making it the country’s biggest talent scouting program.
Three players were picked up after the Chennai leg for the International exposure tour in Spain. Hrishikesh (St. Joseph's Residential School), Ronald Khonginmayi (St. Joseph's Residential School) and Manav Jain (Yuva Bharati Public School) were selected by Head Mentor, Jamshid Nassiri at the Don Bosco School, Wisdom Town, Red Hills Road, Chennai over the last two days.
This is what Jamshid Nassiri had to say about the Chennai leg:
“The matches we witnessed in last two days was one of the most thrilling matches we have had in the tournament so far. All the young boys were highly spirited and enthusiast about the game. My heartiest congratulation to the winning team along with the boys selected through scouting program. We hope to witness same zeal and enthusiasm in coming games. "
In its next destination – Bangalore, Young Heroes will continue the scouting program. Young Heroes is committed to elevate the level of football at the grassroots with the intent to give birth to the football heroes of future. The tournament will see over 100 days of activation programme across the participating schools. All through the tournament, around 45 boys will get selected to undergo a training camp, after which the best 16 will be handpicked by professional coaches to go on an international exposure trip to Spain.
This is a great initiative towards developing football in the country with teenagers holding a chance to be undergoing training methods followed in a country where football is like a religion, where the likes of Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo play in one of the best leagues in the world. This is indeed a move towards the future.
