“Barca Boys" from Pune qualified for the finals of the India Football Tour after winning the Pune leg of the competition. Here are excerpts from the interview with the finalists:
Also read: India Football Tour: Interview with the finalists 'Al-Fateh'
#1 How excited are you for the finals?
We are extremely excited for the finals.
#2 How have you been preparing for the finals?
We are constantly taking the time out to practice and make our game stronger.
#3 What sets your team apart?
We are more than a team, we are Family.
#4 Players in your team to watch out for and why?
There is no specific player as such, we are a team made up of players who you need to watch out for .
#5 How has the experience with IFT been - “Quotes from individual players”
IFT is a great stage for us to showcase our talents - Kaiz Mathew
The experience has been great ! - Eric Rodrigues
We are glad that we are a part of this federation - Allan Charles
It brings us tremendous joy to represent our Pune and showcase our talent – Mohamad Hamza
IFT is doing some great work in showcasing upcoming talent in our nation – Rahul Govalkar
IFT has been great support - Preetam Indnani
#6 History of your club/team. How it all started? How has the journey been?
It all began 9 years ago, there was a tournament held at The Chorianthians Club in Pune which had a massive cash prize of Rs 50,000. Well, 50 thousand isn’t a small amount of money and that kind of pocket money would do wonders. So, I thought to myself that I should register a team.
However, I did not have a team of my own, but I did know a few good players who were my friends and we made up a team and went ahead and registered the team as Barca Boys since I am and will always be a die hard Barcelona Fan.
To the organizers’ surprise, we were the youngest team with the youngest players between the age group of 15 - 17. The other teams thought of us as ‘Tiny competitors’, little did they know that these so-called ‘tiny competitors’ would go ahead and defeat the Huge Hulks and win the competition.
Oh yeah, we did win that tournament and that was the first of the many tournaments that followed. Since then there has been no stopping us , we have constantly been winning tournaments and are considered one of the best teams in Pune. We have won over 30 tournaments and have been recognized by some of the notable names in Pune.
We have a number of articles printed in the newspapers about various players from our team. It has been a great Journey so far and this is only the beginning.
