Once Shillong Lajong FC U15 beat Gauhati Town Club U15 last Friday, we thought we were done with the U15 Youth League for a while, but a new Zone A started their matches on Sunday, and we’ve had three action-packed days of football since! Here’s a quick look at the scores of matches played this last week:
The 2015-16 season has been a great time for football at the Anantapur Sports Academy (ASA). The boys have been performing well, ever since the ASA joined hands with Fateh Hyderabad Associated Football Club (FHAFC) to support them in their I-League debut.
It all started when Fateh Hyderabad signed ASA’s senior-most player, S. Bhaskar Reddy to play for their I-League Division 2 team. This was followed by the signing of all the senior U18 ASA boys and U15 ASA boys to play in the IU18 I-League and U15 Youth Leagues for Fateh Hyderabad, respectively.
Warming Up Before a Game
Source: ASA
The zonal phase of the U15 Youth League is nearing its end. Over the past three weeks, Groups E and F played all their matches, and the last few matches of the Guwahati-Shillong Zone (Group D) were also played. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights of these matches, before we look back on how the first 6 groups ended the zonal phase.
Shillong Lajong FC’s U15 Celebrate a Win
Source: Shillong Lajong FC Facebook Page
Kerala Playing Services in the 2013 Santosh Trophy Final
Source: spiderkerala.net
At the Santosh Trophy final in 2013, Kerala striker R. Kannan missed out on a beautiful opportunity to score, and the match ended up going into penalties with Kerala losing to Services 3-4. After the match, at a dinner hosted by their sponsors, Ramco Cements, R. Kannan lamented about the missed opportunity. However, instead of dwelling on how he could have possibly salvaged a game in the past, he told Balaji K. Moorthy of Ramco Cements that he intended on working harder and bringing home the cup in 2014!
Inspired by R. Kannan’s dedication to the sport, Ramco Cements decided to tie up with the Kerala Football Association again, and work towards boosting the sport in the state. They started the Ramco Kerala Premier League in 2014, which saw participation from 12 clubs across the state. In keeping with their commitment to football in Kerala, Ramco recently started a new youth league, the Ramco State Academy League. This one-of-a-kind U16 football competition is being held between the champion academies of each of the 14 districts in the state.
Coach Jamshid Nassiri shares tips with the boys
Source: Young Heroes Facebook
In August last year, Star Sports launched an interesting campaign called Young Heroes. A unique scouting and Under-15 football tournament, the campaign was started to boost grassroots football in the country, and unearth hitherto unknown football talents for the future. Conducted in 15 cities across India, around 60 to 100 schools from each city were invited to participate in the Young Heroes program. The competition attracted approximately 420,000 students and matches were played for two days in every city. These matches were attended by a group of scouts headed by ex-Iranian football international, Jamshid Nassiri, who selected 3-4 boys from each team to participate in a training camp.
In the summer of 2011, the Pune FC Academy was started, and although the club no longer has a first team, they continue to focus on developing grassroots football in India. With the simple mantra of ‘Learn to Play the Pune FC Way’, the Academy has worked hard over the last 4 years, to carefully mould aspiring footballers in their city. The club recently topped the Maharashtra Zone in the U18 I-League and the U15 Youth League to qualify for the National Round to be held later this year.
As part of their youth development, Pune FC started off 2016 on a great note, by conducting a first of its kind intra-Soccer School Tournament at their training pitches in Mamurdi on the first weekend of the year. The aim of the tournament, was to bring together all the children from various Pune FC Soccer School centres across the city.
Christmas and New Year’s was a busy time for the U15 Youth League, and we found it difficult to keep up with everything going on in all four zones. Week 9 was the last of the season for the Goa Zone (Group C), while week 10 saw the last match of the Kolkata-Jamshedpur Zone (Group A) being played. This weekend, Week 11, saw the last match of the Maharashtra Zone (Group B) being played. Let’s catch up on everything we’ve missed, and see how Groups A, B and C ended the season!
Here’s a quick look at the scores of all the matches played over the last 3 weeks:
Week 9:
Week 10:
Week 11:
The action is heating up in the Hero U15 Youth League with just a handful of games left to be played in Groups A, B & C, Group D just underway and Groups E & F expected to start in January 2016. Here are all the Week 8 results from across the country:
There’s been so much action in the Hero U15 Youth League over the last couple of weeks that we’ve barely been able to keep pace with the developments! Here’s a quick summary of the results from weeks 6 and 7 from around the country:
Source: Essel Group Website
In fantastic news for grassroots football in Mumbai, the Mumbai District Football Association (MDFA) and, the city’s only I-League club, Mumbai FC, have come together to launch the Masters League to give children across the country’s commercial capital an opportunity to showcase their talent. To be played on weekends from January 16, 2016 in a league + knockout format, the league is open to boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 14 years.
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