East Zone Junior Male Soccer players of Sports Authority of India (SAI) state hostels are all set to compete for selection in the National Team for Under-17. As many as 11 state teams will be playing league matches for the mentioned trial from May 19 to 23 at Birsa Munda Football Stadium.
Speaking about the relevance of this tournament at state capital, SAI Jharkhand Coordinator Sushil Kumar Verma on Sunday said, “After 2006 and 2013, this is for the third time that such a final selection trial is being conducted here.”
“The selected players in this final selection trial will play in the All India U-17 Junior National, Champion Regional Team U-17 for Subroto Mukherjee Cup at New Delhi and Premiere league at Kolkata,” mentioned Burdwan’s Chief Coach Ananta Kumar Ghosh who is also the selector of this football meet.
Meanwhile, the players who reached here today denoted Darjeeling SAI STC boys as the strongest competitor. “Around 10 out of 18 players of our team will be playing popular Kolkata Premiere league for the first time this year. Despite this recognition, we are abit scared of Darjeeling team since they had won this selection trail last year making us the runner up of the same,” S Adhikari, a player of SAI STC Kolkata said.
Supporting Adhikari, players of SAI STC Cuttack and Agartala said, “Though there are more teams than last year, but this year too Darjeeling team has the maximum chances of leading the game.”
Notably, all these young outsiders expressed a negative remark on the ground of Birsa Munda Football Stadium. Chief Coach Ananta Kumar Ghosh along with Darjeeling’s players Bimal and Manon said, “We play on a grassy ground which is helps in improving the skills. In order to maintain a good game standard, good ground is important. The ground here is hard and less grassy.”
The semi-finals and final matches of this sports meet is scheduled on May 22 and 23. State Art, Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Geetashree Oraon will be felicitating the winners.SAI-1 : Junior footballers of SAI STC Darjeeling pose for photograph at Birsa Munda Football stadium in Ranchi on Sunday.