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U Sports who own the Pro Kabaddi League Champions U Mumba have made a strong entry in Indian Sports with such a huge success that Kabaddi has brought to the organisation. However, U Sports, the Ronnie Screwvala owned company has also managed to make breakthrough in football through their programme, U Dream Football, which aims at developing the game at the grassroots level.
In its very first season, the U Dream Football Program was able to send 15 students to TSG 1899 Hoffenheim after the selection process which involved over 10000 kids from over 800 schools across the country. Ronnie Screwvala spoke at length on his vision for the long-term development of the sport and stressed developing football as a viable career option for kids in India.
“I feel with the league like the ISL, the changes are positive in Indian football, but there needs to be an effort to develop the game at the grassroots level to actually help improve the standards of Indian Football, so we decided to give youngsters a chance to gain top level training at a very young age,” Screwvala said.
He believed that youngsters must perceive football as a career from a very young age and must receive the best quality coaching for them to reach the international level.
“The U Dreams Football gives the best kids in the country to train with one of the best in world football. We want kids to perceive football as a career from a very young age and grow with that dream. It’s important that they dedicate most of their time to football in order for them to develop into top level professionals.
Half-hearted commitment will not result in the desired results,” Screwvala added.
The U Mumba founder revealed he went on to the extent of personally speaking to the parents of talented youngsters to pursue them to allow their child to focus on his football. “We have spoken to parents of several kids convincing them to allow their kids to pursue football as a career and let them practise the game for long hours,” disclosed Screwvala while he spoke his heart out at the India Football Forum in Mumbai earlier today.
U Sports’ second edition of the U Dream Football promises to be bigger and better as Ronnie Screwvala’s vision further takes shape.
