DOHA, QATAR
The Qatar wing of Manjappada, a fan club of Indian Super League team Kerala Blasters, has launched an ambitious football youth development programme to groom and train young footballers in the Middle East country.
A month-long free football coaching camp will be held from August 1 to 31 at a school ground in Doha and so far 150 children have enrolled for the training, said the Qatar wing President Deepesh Govindan Kutty.
“We have a good response considering most of the families and school children are in the holiday period. Some have left for vacation to India and others to other holiday locations, in spite of that we have got a good turnout in terms of registration,” said Deepesh, who has been based in Qatar for the last 17 years.
Giving a breakdown of the children enrolled so far, he said: “We have registration from prospective footballers hailing from different states who are based in Qatar and of course the highest number is from Kerala and some children hailing from Maharashtra have registered. Seven girls have also enrolled for the coaching,” he said about the coaching camp which will be held in three age groups of 8-11, 12-14, and 15-18.
The organisers of the camp informed that children hailing from Goa, Punjab, West Bengal, some of the pockets which enjoy strong football following have not enrolled for the camp. “May be most of them are on holidays and hopefully they will be part of the training programme in the near future."
Incidentally, Justino Camilo Fernandes, a 16-year-old having links to Cuncolim and Assolna villages, is currently part of the Qatar under-17 team and trains at the state-of-the-art Aspire Academy, where most of the top footballers of the national team of Qatar train.
Asked as to whether the camp is the search for the next Vijayans of Indian football, Deepesh said they are ready to help Indian football in whatever way possible.
“Hopefully, if we can contribute to India’s search for football talent, why not. The raw and unpolished diamonds would hopefully be polished and shine like diamonds not only in Qatar, India but on the world stage and propel India into a football power in the years to come that is a wish we all football lovers' dream and wish, hopefully it will happen in the coming years,” said Deepesh about the talent search in Qatar.
Some of Kerala's leading lights in football coaching are associated with the programme with Kerala state Santosh trophy winning coach Bino George being the coaching mentor. Asian Football Confederation (AFC) C licensed coach Suneesh is the head coach.
Asked about what the future holds for the children after the camp, Deepesh said, “We will announce that in due course of time.” Deepesh informed that Kerala Blasters fan clubs are based in 40 countries spread across the world.
