Tag: Football Academy (page 2 of 2)

SSE’s Grassroots Football League to Kick Off

Soccer Schools of ExcellenceIn a country like ours, where cricket has almost become a religion, it is refreshing to see people with a passion for football sharing their love with children. Atul Gupta and Arpreet Singh Bajaj are two such individuals who decided they wanted to pass on their fondness of the sport, and they both quit their jobs in finance to start Soccer Schools of Excellence (SSE) in 2010. They set up SSE with the aim of providing young sports enthusiasts in India with a complete football education. While over 800 children have signed up for their various classes through the week, SSE is hoping to reach out to more NGOs in the future, and touch the lives of those who are not as lucky as them through football.

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SEPT – Bringing Hope to Football in Kerala

SEPT Football Nursery

SEPT Football Nursery

“Those days, back in the 1990s, a footballer from Kerala was looked upon with awe,” remembers IM Vijayan, a native of Kerala and one of the greatest footballers India has ever produced. Reminiscing further, he says, “You guys are tigers, they used to tell me. Outstanding talents just continued to flow out of our tiny state. The quality of our players surprised everyone. We had V. P. Sathyan, C. V. Pappachan, U. Sharaf Ali, K. T. Chacko, Kurikesh Mathew, Mathew Varghese, Jo Paul Ancheri…”

It’s true. There was a time when Kerala footballers even formed the majority of the Indian national team. “I remember having around nine players from Kerala at an Indian camp,” says Vijayan. “And there were occasions when five of us actually made the eleven.” Since then, there has been a mighty fall from grace.

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YFC Rurka Kalan – Changing the Game

YFC Rurka Kalan

YFC Rurka Kalan
Image Credit: YFC Rurka Kalan Website

It’s the year 2001. The sleepy hamlet of Rurka Kalan, about 40 kilometres from Phagwara in the state of Punjab, is plagued by crime and substance abuse. Almost an entire generation of youth are squandering away their futures. Enter Gurmangal Dass, an electronics engineer, who has returned some years ago from the US after giving up a promising job – a man with a vision for brighter future and a steely resolve to free the village from the clutches of drugs.

Cut to the present – the year 2015. Youth Football Club (YFC) Rurka Kalan now has centres spread across 9 villages in Punjab, touches over 10,000 lives, houses a 5,000 seater sports stadium, operates in the areas of education, sports, health and environment and, amazingly, offers every single service at no cost whatsoever to young people in need.

This is the story of YFC Rurka Kalan – much more than a grassroots football club.

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