New Delhi: The Airtel Rising Stars 2013 season, India’s largest Under-16 soccer talent hunt, will kick off in Delhi on August 17, with 80 of the city’s leading soccer playing schools vying for the honour of lifting the Airtel Cup, the symbol of supremacy in the city. Besides Delhi, the Airtel Rising Stars talent hunt will be held in six other cities, namely Mumbai, Kolkata, Goa, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Guwahati and will involve around 450 schools in total.
The opening matches of the tournament will be played at the Ganga International School Ground and will feature G.I.S. versus Richmond Public School, followed by Venkateshwar, Rohini versus St. Margret.
The tournament will also be the platform to pick the best three players, who will go on to represent Delhi in the final selection trials to be held in Goa. The best goalkeeper from each city will also be picked and put through their paces, following which two will be shortlisted for the final selection trials, which will be held in Goa.
Besides players from the top soccer playing schools, individual players also stand a chance of being picked for the final selection trials. Those aspiring of the opportunity can upload videos of their soccer playing skills and the top 50 videos from each city will be shortlisted for a live audition. From these, the most talented player will get an opportunity to be a part of the final selection trials.
The 30 players in the final selection trials will train for five days under coaches of the Manchester United Soccer Schools (MUSS) in Goa and will be tested on all parameters (including physical attributes, individual skills, match situations and their performances in actual matches) before 11 of the best players are chosen to travel to Manchester for a week and train alongside the Manchester United - Under 21 team.
The Airtel Rising Stars 2013 was flagged off in Delhi previous month in the presence of Manchester United football legend Gary Pallister and Mohit Beotra (Chief Brand Officer – Bharti Airtel, India).
