Chennaiyin FC conducts final selection for Reliance Foundation Young Champs
Chennai, April 11 2015 – Chennaiyin FC conducted a grassroots festival for the final selection of kids from Tamil Nadu for the Reliance Foundation Young Champs.
The festival was conducted by Chennaiyin FC technical director of grassroots Vivek Nagul along with several other coaches and volunteers, under the supervision of the ISL technical director of grassroots Piet Hubers at the training pitch of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here in the city on Saturday morning.
Hubers will be selecting the best kids from the grassroots program of each of the eight Hero Indian Super League franchises. As a part of that selection procedure, Chennaiyin FC has been conducting grassroots festivals since February and Saturday was the final leg of the selection for the Reliance Foundation Young Champs.
Chennaiyin FC have so far conducted over 50 grassroots festivals, reaching out to more than 50 schools and around 15,000 kids. The festivals have not only been conducted in Chennai but also in other parts of Tamil Nadu like Ooty and Coimbatore. Besides schools, Chennaiyin FC have also reached out to kids of NGOs like ‘Magic Bus’ and ‘Slum Soccer’.
However, only the kids born in the years 2002, 2003, and 2004 were eligible for selection for the Reliance Foundation Young Champs.
200 of the best kids from those age groups attended the festival on Saturday and once Hubers completes attending the final selections of all eight Hero Indian Super League franchises, the Dutchman will name the final list from Tamil Nadu.
“Chennaiyin FC have been working very hard on grassroots and today’s festival was very well organised. Everybody starting from the staff of the franchise, to the kids and parents showed great passion and enthusiasm. There is definitely some good talent in Tamil Nadu and I will be selecting the best of them once I am done assessing all the eight franchises,” said Hubers.
Saturday’s festival had participants from not only Chennai but also Ooty and Coimbatore with Chennaiyin FC arranging transport and accommodation for those kids.
Chennaiyin FC CEO Ashish Shah said, “We are delighted to have reached out to so many kids in Tamil Nadu in our grassroots program. I thank all my staff for the great work they have been putting in for the last two months and would also like to thank the kids, parents, schools, NGOs for participating with great passion. I hope many kids from Tamil Nadu get selected for the Reliance Foundation Young Champs.
“This is just the start of our long-term youth development plan. We will soon announce about our year-long grassroots program and will be opening Centres of Excellence which will act as a platform for both budding footballers and aspiring coaches in Tamil Nadu.”