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NorthEast United owner and eminent Bollywood personality John Abraham stated in clear terms that he wants the majority of his team to be constituted of talents from the NorthEast United FC Academy in the days to come.
"We want youngster and clearly believe 'youth is the way forward'. NorthEast United have always boasted of the youngest teams in the league and that is something he will look to continue," Abraham quipped, speaking at the ISL Draft 2017.
"If you see our associations with Shillong United and Neroca in the past we want to promote the game throughout the region. Unless other clubs which are city-specific and or state-specific, we want to bring an inclusiveness in the whole North East region."
The Highlanders had announced the opening of a residential football academy earlier this week and had formed a five-year strategic partnership with Shillong United.
Continuing on the theme, Abraham stated, "In the coming days, we want to get more players in from the academy and in fact, I would want around 60% of the players in our team to come from the academy."
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Want to bring build the backbone of the team on North East talents
A trend in NorthEast's drafting was clearly an impetus in building the identity of the team on the back players from the region. In fact, nine of the 13 players drafted by the Highlanders belonged to the football-mad North East region. This included their first pick of the draft, Halicharan Narzary.
Speaking of their choice to pick the exciting Narzary with their first pick in the third round of the Draft, Abraham clarified he was always one that they wanted to bring in with the first pick.
"He (Halicharan) was, in fact, one we wanted to retain. But had to make the tough choice to part with. But we clearly had in our minds that (if we got a chance) he will be the first name we are going to pick," stated the 44-year-old. "He is one who can play on the right, the left or down the centre. And we feel that he is in the form of his life. He has his best days in front of him and additionally, he is from our region and we want the team to have a real North East essence in it."
Also read: ISL Draft 2017: Sunil Chhetri vows not to celebrate against Mumbai City FC if he scores
Want to play "fast football"
John Abraham is a fan of the game and more importantly a fan of playing the game at a fast pace - something that is kept in mind whilst getting the backroom staff in place as well as the players for the team.
"We want to play something that we call 'fast football'. That is our identity in terms of tactics. NorthEast United will always play an attacking brand of football. We will try and score more than the opponents, that's the attitude we have. We are in no ways going to park the bus," stated the Bollywood star. "We want to play for the audience. We want to play for the crowd."
