“Leave the ground! Why are you guys still talking? Niklo bahar , sab !” yells Taposh Ghosh, assistant to the Head Coach of the Mumbai Football Club’s Youth Wing, showing the door to young footballers who failed to make the cut after three days of trials at the packed Cooperage Football Stadium in South Mumbai.
Elation and dejection
The downcast youngsters drag themselves out of the ground, mumbling, “They kicked us out. They told us not to play any further.” Meanwhile, the 22 lucky youngsters picked from a wide pool of 510 aspirants who had registered for the trials to make it to the under-18 team, pull up their socks and dart to the middle to show off their dribbling skills. Six coaches watch the boys closely and observe their technique. They hand-pick players from the contenders and place them in teams based on three age-groups — under-13, under-15 and under-18 — and pit them against the MFC’s formidable youth teams.
Head Coach Arshad Hussain says, “We basically need a few players to fill in positions such as stopper centre-backs, attackers and goalkeepers in every age category. We also need 20 players in the reserve team. That’s the reason why we hold these yearly trials. We select only the best grain, sifting out the chaff.” The chosen few will have to prove their ability to play total football during their gruelling one-month training under Mr. Hussain.
Jal Sonpal, back-end manager of the youth wing’s football trials, says the trials is all about providing a level-playing field to every promising player. Separate trials will be held to select eight goalkeepers in August.
Some of the aspiring footballers vying for a spot in youth teams travelled from as far as Punjab, Delhi, the Northeast, Madhya Pradesh and Nashik. They are even willing to settle down in Mumbai if they get a chance to play in the youth teams.
The under-13 and under-15 players will undergo training at the Andheri Sports Complex and will have pay an annual fee of ₹30,000 for using the grounds. Mr. Sonpal says, “The under-18 players will most probably train at the Cooperage Football Stadium.” The MFC will bear the costs of training, coaching and other expenses, and hand out the coveted MFC jerseys to a chosen few who stand a chance of playing in the Mumbai Football League and the I-League.
‘Belief in total football’
“I don’t need to know their names or where they come from. Their performance, that’s what I look at and for,” Mr. Hussain says.
“We are into ‘total football’ here; this is our philosophy. Our boys in the youth teams are the best. There’s no doubt about it. I have already spotted two or three talented players in this new pool.”
Mr. Hussain says the selected 22 players will be put through further trials over a month as it is difficult to assess their quality just on the basis of the three-day trials. He says, “Some will have to leave, that is how it is.”
Seventeen-year-old H. Abhishek Patel was part of the MFC youth team for three years, but he was dropped last year. He showed up at the trials to reclaim his place in a fair and open competition and was lucky to be chosen for the month-long training. Abhishek’s friend Dhanishta was not so fortunate and fell out of contention on the final day of the trials.
Himanshu Khose, 17, of Thakur College of Science and Commerce in Kandivali, showcased his skills in the friendly game against the youth team. “It went ok, I enjoyed the game,” says Khose after the final whistle.
