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A Talent for Learning

February 4, 2016 / / 0 Comments

He was twice voted European Midfielder of the Year, guided his team to two consecutive Champions League finals, was wanted by Real Madrid but never sold to them, scored one of the best goals ever in the 1999 Copa del Rey final, is considered one of the very best and remorseless, cold-eyed penalty takers in history, and till today, is regarded as one of the all-time greats at his club. If you haven’t guessed yet, we’re talking about Gaizka Mendieta of Valencia CF.  (Goodness knows, Gary Neville could do with a player of his class right now! But we digress…)

Here’s Mendieta’s goal from that Copa del Rey final – WOOF!!!!

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Ramco Cements Strengthens Football in Kerala

February 3, 2016 / / 0 Comments
2013 Santosh Trophy Final

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.

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Messi Chats with La Masia Kids

February 2, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Here’s a lovely video of La Masia captains, from the U10s right up to the U19s, having a chat with one Lionel Messi. Enjoy it!
WATCH: Messi interviewed by La Masia captains – ESPN Video

Lessons from Bilbao

February 1, 2016 / / 0 Comments

In a world of multi-million pound transfers, eye-watering wages and superstar lifestyles off the pitch, here’s a European football club that is refreshingly different – steeped in tradition and nearly completely dependent on their academy, the ‘Lezama’, to provide a pipeline of talent to the first team. This is Athletic Club Bilbao.

Athletic, as they are commonly referred to in Spain, was founded over a century ago in 1898 and won the Copa del Rey title 23 times and numerous Spanish league titles before Real Madrid and Barcelona began their dominance. Coming from a country that has several thousand football clubs, Athletic stand out because they are known to only recruit players who come from the Greater Basque country that covers the north-east of Spain and some parts of France. Despite the limitations, some of the outstanding talents that have played for the club in recent times include Ander Herrera, now at Manchester United, Javi Martinez, now at Bayern Munich, and Fernando Llorente, now at Sevilla.

Athletic Bilbao

The Athletic Team Ready for a Match
Source: Athletic Club Facebook Page

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Star Sports Young Heroes Gear Up for Spain

January 29, 2016 / / 2 Comments
Star Sports Young Heroes Program

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.

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Farewell, Saira

January 28, 2016 / / 1 Comment
Saira Sirohi

Swimming prodigy Saira Sirohi
Source: Times Now Facebook

India shed a few tears earlier this week on Monday when it learned of Saira Sirohi’s tragic suicide. Saira, just 16 years old, was a prodigious national-level swimmer who had amassed 110 medals across various age categories over the years. She had been identified as an elite talent, a future Olympics probable, and only some months ago, swam for 15 hours without stopping at her school pool in Ghaziabad covering a lung-busting 38 kilometres.

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Football for Fun

January 14, 2016 / / 0 Comments

For children, playing a sport is important – not just because it benefits them physically, or socially, but because they have fun. They get to meet different children, and learn about new experiences. Running around with their friends, scoring a goal, or joining in the celebrations when a friend scores a goal – that’s what kids care about, and that’s why they play sport.

Grassroots football plays an important role in trying to keep that spark alive in children. Football coaching, or coaching in general, isn’t just about being the coach with the team that wins, it’s about being the coach who is respected, and being the coach who kids want to train with. We need to remember what it felt like to be young, and run about with friends and have fun. Sport isn’t always about winning or losing – it’s about learning how to play the game right, and having a jolly good time while you do!

Pune FC Starts 2016 with the Right Foot Forward

January 13, 2016 / / 1 Comment

Pune FC 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.

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Catching Up on the U15 Youth League – Weeks 9, 10 and 11

January 11, 2016 / / 0 Comments

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:

U15 Youth League Week 9 Match Results

Week 10:

U15 Youth League Week 10 Match Results 

Week 11:

I League U15 Results Week 11

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Indian Olympian Rues Lack of Support for Sport

January 7, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Viren Rasquinha

Viren Rasquinha, former captain of the Indian field hockey team, just wrote a heartfelt letter in the Indian Express to Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, India’s third largest state. In the letter, which is written in the context of the upcoming Rio Olympics this year, Rasquinha touches on some points that a lot of us sports fans in India feel very deeply about. And while it is written to an administrator in India, we believe that the points Viren has raised are applicable to cities and nations across the world.

Here are some of the issues that resonated with us:

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