Goa will witness another football academy besides SESA Football Academy as Dempo Sports Club’s state of the art football academy is all set to begin operations from July.
The fully residential academy located in the pristine hinterlands of Ella, about nine kilometres from Panjim and three kilometres from the Se Cathedral in Old Goa has fulfilled a long standing desire of Dempo SC Youth Development Technical Director Karnagaran (Katz) Naidoo
“Although I have travelled around the world and set up academies in South Africa and worked in different parts of Africa, Norway and Netherlands, setting up this academy has given me immense satisfaction as it helped me give back to the country of my origin. Setting up Dempo’s latest investment in football has been immensely satisfying,” he said speaking about his newest creation.
The South African would know a thing or two about producing players after being closely involved with the Transnet and Simba National Development Programmes, as well as the Transnet School of Excellence a National Academy for exceptional South African youth players, where notable figures like Steven Peinaar, Brice Moon, Brit Evans, Mubelo Oldjohn and many others emerged as national heroes playing at global platforms.
“It would not be incorrect to say that Dempo Sports Club’s academy would be the best in the business- in line with the vision of club President Shrinivas Dempo,” he added.
The academy project will have an international sized grass pitch, work on which has already commenced. The grass pitch is expected to be ready to use by November 2017 along with the academy administration block.
Phase two of the project would see the player residences being completed along with the artificial turf. The academy block would house the offices of the coaches and the Technical Director, along with the gymnasium, cafeteria, recreation room etc, while the accommodation would have rooms of high standards where the boys would stay and study in.
The twenty four odd players entering the academy would be on a full scholarship and their typical day would involve breakfast in the morning, attending school, training for about an hour to ninety minutes after lunch, followed by studies and dinner.
The training regime would be governed by the LTPD, (long term player development) which is age related and aligned to the Dempo development curriculum that he has developed based on the ‘culture and characteristics’ of Indian players.
There are also long term plans of building a school of high international standards in the vacant land adjacent to the football academy. As part of its commitment to football and youth development, Dempo’s ambitious plans would enable the youth of Goa to have a holistic development with football and academics being taken care of. In the interim, talks are in progress with schools within the radius of five kilometres, where the boys would be given admission and side by side be trained in footballing skills.
The duration of the stay would be for four years that will hopefully yield positive outcomes and the boys would be taken on a full scholarship where all their footballing and academic needs would be taken care of. The talented boys from the academy after passing out would be absorbed in the Dempo Sports Club senior team and go on to play professional football at the highest level in India and hopefully venture into foreign shores.
As part of its long-term plans and to continue to match the best standards in the world, the academy will also look to tie up with a foreign club, for technical exchange of modern training philosophy, sports science and nutrition. Coach education would also be given utmost importance.
