PANJIM: FC Goa will be short listing 25 budding footballers from their grassroots development programme as part of the Reliance Foundation Young Champs Scholarship Program which is a nationwide search for the country’s next footballing stars and will culminate in Mumbai, in May 2015.
FC Goa organized their grassroots football festival for children between the age of 11 and 13 years, at Tilak Maidan, Vasco, on Sunday.
Piet Hubers, Technical Director Grassroots, Indian Super League was down in Goa to scout for potential talent at the grassroots festival.
The festival saw 200 selected footballers from 16 schools which were tied up with FC Goa. However, there were no representatives from GFDC (Goa Football Development Council) which was mainly established with the sole purpose of developing grassroots football.
“They (FC Goa) never asked or invited us to send our trainees for the trials. It was mainly restricted to the trainees of the FC Goa grassroots programme. If they had asked to send our boys we would have definitely obliged,” informed Dr Rufino Monteiro, Chairman of GFDC.
Approximately, 25 short listed players from each of the eight ISL (Indian Super League) franchise clubs will participate in the week-long Reliance Foundation Young Champs National selection camp to be held in Mumbai in May.
FC Goa CEO, Ashley Furtado dismissed any strained relations with GFDC and stating they were all for the betterment of the sport.
“There is no rift between the two grassroots projects of FC Goa and GFDC. We had associated with only 16 schools from the State. We want to promote football, and they want to do the same,” informed Ashley.
FC Goa grassroots development programme which commenced a few months ago reached out to over 20,000 children and actively mentored over 1500 students from 16 schools.
Savio Messias, Goa Football Association’s former general secretary, was disappointed as the talent present in the GFDC could not get a shot. “It is very unfortunate that the GFDC trainees were unable to attend the ISL Academy trials with is on course to be one of the best academies in the country. They have missed out on this opportunity and it’s a big blow for Goan football.”
Over the last three months FC Goa’s Grassroots Coach, Gavin Araujo, an AFC A license coach has been working tirelessly with Goa’s young talented footballers. He has been supported by a team of four assistant coaches and eight grassroots coaches besides 16 physical education teachers from the respective schools inducted in the programme.
