JAIPUR: All India Football Federation's (AIFF) director of scouting and recently-appointed Chief Operating Officer for the U-17 World Cup Abhishek Yadav has shortlisted five Indian origin players from Dubai, who he feels have the potential to crack into the Indian Under-17 national team which will participate in the Asian Football Confederation's (
AFC
) Championship, in September this year, and the World Cup next year.
From the chosen five, three to four will travel to Germany to be a part of the Indian colts touring the European nation. The overseas scouting programme, a pilot project started to unearth talent from outside India ahead of the World Cup, is in its first phase.
Augustus Nixon
(striker),
Rixon Lobo
(striker), Yuveer Kelkar (defender), Arjun Sunil (midfielder) and
Neelkantan Anand
(left back) are the finalists.
"We are also committed to scout for other age group teams," Yadav told TOI from Dubai on Thursday.
"We will now look at other countries like Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia for more such talent. I am getting a lot of enquiries from these countries. I am certain many good footballers with Indian passport are there in these countries and I will make all efforts to provide them the opportunity they deserve. It's a national project and I am hopeful that it will only strengthen the national team," the former India No 9 added.
The overseas scouting initiative is backed by the
Sports Authority of India
(SAI),
Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sport
and the Ministry of External Affairs. Though started a bit late with the mega-event now almost knocking at the doorstep, Yadav feels this along with the online portal where interested parties can upload their videos for audition, should help in widening the search for the best talent to be tracked down.
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