10 young footballers from the School Football Championship 2015-16 travel to London to train Crystal Palace FC

The 10 kids who got the opportunity

From over 2250 children, the hand-picked top ten players from the School Football Championship 2015-16 will train at the English Premier League Club, Crystal Palace FC, in the United Kingdom. The team comprises children from the age groups of under-10, under-12, under-14 and under-16, coming from the four Indian cities of Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune. They will embark on their ten-day journey on September 11, 2016.

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Crystal Palace Football Club is a Technical Partner of School Football Championship and this training is part of their agreement. The first edition of the School Football Championships backed by Tata Motors ran for 10 weeks across 4 cities simultaneously. Over the course of these 10 weeks, 225 teams battled it out to be crowned City Champions.

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There were teams from the Just For Kicks program, low-income private schools, and international schools. The organizing team along with representatives from Crystal Palace Football Club then scouted for top performers. These children have been further groomed and are all set for this unique once-in-a-lifetime training experience. 

BookASmile, the charity initiative of India's largest online entertainment portal BookMyShow, is happy to support the visit of these children to Crystal Palace FC, London. 

Four of the ten children traveling are from impoverished communities, who are a part of the Just For Kicks program. Speaking on the unique initiative Vikas Plakkot, Co-Founder of Just For Kicks, says, “We at Just For Kicks, are proud to have made this possible for our most hard-working players.

For all of them, it is their very first time on an airline and to go to train at such an elite club makes it an absolute dream for them. I truly believe that this 10-day training will not only boost their knowledge on football and strengthen their skills but mainly help them draw inspiration from academy players their age and aim to get to that skill level”

Mr. Gary Mulcahey, Sports Development Director at Crystal Palace Foundation, stated: "We are looking forward to welcoming this talented group of footballers to Crystal Palace. We hope this partnership will assist in the development of these young players, as they will have access to the best facilities and the opportunity to learn from some of the best coaches and trained players their age. India is the sleeping giant of Football and hopefully, we can help awaken it.”

The 10 young people traveling to the UK are Anagha Janakkiraman, Avantika Solanki, Avaneesh Kamath, Ashish Jadav, Dhruv Roy, Skylar D’Souza, Samrat Bahaddur, Shatrughan Prajapati, Snehil Reddy, and Treia Menon. 

The next School Football Championship will be held in December 2016.