#4 The U16 team's performances in the AFC Championship and BRICS tournament
Though the results were not good enough, India's U-16 side proved that the future is bright for the country with their performances in the AFC U-16 Championship and BRICS U-17 football tournament. The young team made the whole nation proud with their excellent displays in both the competitions.
Despite being the host of the AFC Championship (host team has automatic qualification), India took part in the qualifiers for the tournament and managed to be the third best runners-up. The team was pitted in group A along with Iran, UAE and Saudi Arabia. The youngsters could only manage a single point, which they got after a draw against Saudi Arabia. However, India gave a tough challenge to UAE before losing 3-2 to them. Only Iran managed to defeat the team with ease.
India was also the host of the BRICS U-17 football tournament but still failed to win a match. However, the young guns didn't give up without giving a fight. The team lost to Russia, China and South Africa by only a single goal (all of them 1-0 losses). They were also one of the teams who scored a goal against champions Brazil and the only to do so in the group stage. India's U-16 side even received a lot of praise from the opposition teams for their performances in the tournament. Dheeraj Singh, Boris Singh, Aniket Jadhav and Aman Chetri were some of the impressive stars.
