Bangalore: The inter-city leg of the third edition of Mahindra Youth Football Challenge 2013 will kick off from 17 April, 2013 in Bangalore. The country’s finest under-14 football players from leading schools across six Indian cities will get a wonderful opportunity to display their football skills in the tournament, which will be played at the Bangalore Football Stadium. The event is being organised by Bangalore District Football Association of Karnataka State Football Association in partnership with Procam International Ltd.
The top school teams chosen from intra-state rounds held in Mumbai, Bangalore, New Delhi, Kolkata, Goa and Kerala will battle it out for the title of the Inter-City Champion School of Mahindra Youth Football Challenge. The six winning schools that will participate in the leg are Greenwood International – Bangalore, Don Bosco High School – Mumbai, DPS Vasant Kunj - New Delhi, Ashoknagar Bidyasagar Banibhavan – Kolkata, Don Bosco School – Goa, and St. Joseph’s Higher Secondary School – Kerala.
In the inter-city leg, the six champion school teams will play each other in league format to determine the top two, who will then play the final on April 22, 2013 at the Bangalore Football Stadium.
A four-day coaching clinic was held for the talented school-level players and their coaches from 13-16 April 2013. This helped the inter-city champion schools to work on their game on the inside and gain much needed individual guidance from international experts.
The coaching sessions was supervised by well-known coaches from Celtic Football Club. Mark Tobin - Centre of Excellence Coach, Tom McKay - Academy Goalkeeping Coach, Michael McIlroy - Grassroots Coach and Greig Robertson - International Academy Development Officer Youth Academy Coach were available during the clinic.
The Mahindra Youth Football Challenge is the Mahindra Group’s commitment to promote football at the grassroots level. The company has partnered with Scottish football giant Celtic Football Club, who is taking on the responsibility of training and developing young talent identified through the initiative.
Prizes galore: The Champion school will receive the Mahindra Youth Football Challenge Trophy and prize money of Rs. 50,000, while the runner-up will also receive a trophy and prize money of Rs 30,000. Besides these, the ‘Star Performer’ of each match will also receive a trophy. There will be prizes for the ‘Best Goalkeeper’, ‘Best Midfielder’, ‘Best Striker’ and ‘Best Defender’ of the tournament.
An opportunity to train with the best: Based on their performances in the Inter-City Challenge, 22 players will be selected for another intense four-day coaching clinic to be held from April 23 to 26, 2013 and conducted by the above mentioned coaches. From these, two to four of the best players will be picked to travel to Scotland and undergo a ten-day training stint at the Celtic Football Club Academy. The names of these players will be announced at the conclusion of the final camp on April 26, 2013.
Gaurav Bora from New Delhi and Sufaid Ali from Kerala had emerged the best two footballers from the Second season of the Mahindra Youth Football Challenge. These two were picked after the Inter-City Challenge last year and got an opportunity to avail a ten-day intensive coaching camp in Glasgow with the Celtic Football Club.
