Star Sports launches "Young Heroes" program to find budding football talent

Star Sports “Young Stars” to handpick talented soccer players and to train them in Spain

Star Sports launched its latest sporting venture ‘Young Heroes’ in association with IDBI and Parle to handpick the 16 most talented soccer players from schools from 15 different cities. It is a 7 a side U-15 school football tournament.

The tournament was kicked off in Kolkata with Deeksha Educational Trust beating St. Lawrence 3-0. The mega football tournament will travel to 14 other Indian cities. Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kochi, Goa, Indore, Pune, Mumbai, Shillong, Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Chandigarh and Delhi will host the inaugural season.

1500 Indian schools will be taking part in this competition out of which 650 schools will be shortlisted for the playoffs. A total of 4, 20,000 students are estimated to play at the tournament, making it the country’s biggest talent scouting program.

Three players were picked up after the Kolkata leg for the International exposure tour in Spain. Saaron Bhattacharya from Julien Day Kalyani, Devdas Munda from Deeksha Education Trust and Kiyan Nassiri from St. James were selected by Head Mentor, Jamshid Nassiri at the Howrah Municipal Corporation Stadium in Kolkata.

This is what Head Mentor Jamshid Nassiri had to say about the program:

“My association with Indian Football is over three decades old and it will be a great experience to share my knowledge of the game with young budding footballers during my association with Star Sports Young Heroes. I always believed that football needs to be promoted at the very grassroots to facilitate optimum level of fitness and discipline. If we can provide the right platform for the amazing young talents in India then I am sure they will be able to graduate into passionate footballers in future.”

Chennai is the next destination for the scouting program. Young Heroes is committed to elevate the level of football at the grassroots with the intent to give birth to the football heroes of future. The tournament will see over 100 days of activation program across the participating schools. All through the tournament, around 45 boys will get selected to undergo a training camp, after which the best 16 will be handpicked by professional coaches to go on an international exposure trip to Spain.

Here’s what Nassiri had to say about the talent on show after the Kolkata leg, “I am content with the kind of talent at disposal over the last two days. The start could not have been more exciting. I congratulate the three boys who got selected today through the scouting process, these boys have performed a notch better than the rest and their skills have given me the reason to believe in their abilities. Kolkata has always been passionate about the game of football and the matches we witnessed were full of determination from the young talents. I am looking forward to welcome similar talented footballers from other cities of the country as well.”

Scouting programs like this certainly help elevate the status of football in India and also give youngsters the chance to prove themselves and show the potential they have. It also gives them the chance to pick up tricks of the trade from International coaches and also have the chance to play in Spain, with facilities far better than those in India.

Edited by Staff Editor