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Bollywood star John Abraham is widely known to be a football fanatic and in a support to IMG-Reliance’s proposed IPL-style tournament, the 40-year-old trained with the players at the ongoing training camp at the Cooperage Stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday morning.
Abraham, who appeared as a prolific striker in the movie ‘Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal’, thoroughly enjoyed the training session under Trevor Morgan with Indian football icon Bhaichung Bhutia also making his first appearance at the camp.
“I had great fun training with such exceptional players although most of the time I was just looking at the ball! There are three things that I live, breathe and eat. Those are fitness, football and motorcycling. I always enjoy playing and watching the game,” he told the addressed media.
One of the features of IMG-R’s new tournament will be the glamour surrounding it with Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan already expressing his interest of owning the Kolkata franchise.
John Abraham’s appearance in the training today was a reminder of how different the new tournament will be from the I-League which has failed to attract celebrities. But the actor is still unsure about owning a team.
“If I could afford to I will (own a franchise),” he stated. But Abraham acknowledged the impact Bollywood stars can have on the promotion of any sport besides cricket in India.
“It’s a fact that our country doesn’t have stars outside cricket and Bollywood so we must do as much as possible for sports. What Shah Rukh Khan is doing is fabulous and if all of us can do that it would be great,” he said.
Abraham admitted that he mostly follows the leagues abroad and also revealed the name of his current favourite player.
“I am a big fan of Neymar and I feel he is the future of football. He has now been signed by Barcelona where he will play alongside (Lionel) Messi so that is going to make Barcelona unbeatable,” he said.
Here are a few more pictures from today’s training session.
