Imphal, Jan.13: Manipur football players numbering around fifteen who plays in the U-15 category have left Imphal on Friday for a premier collaborative football training programme in Germany.
The boys will undergo training for six years under the initiative of India’s oldest non-sectarian philanthropic organization, Tata Trusts and U Sports, a Mumbai based futuristic sports business company. The initiative is aimed at improving the standard of Indian football, providing opportunities to play in global football fields to talented Indian footballers and importantly, to ensure qualification of India in 2026 World Cup, says Associate Director Biswanath Sinha of Tata Trusts. Young and talented footballers will be offered a unique opportunity to pursue a career as a professional footballer under the project U Dream Football, he added. The project also aims at offering international training and infrastructure support to help them advance as a professional footballer, functionary of Tata Trusts which has opened 60 centres in Mizoram to train young talents at the grassroots level in collaboration with the Mizoram Government. He added that a total of 80 boys from the North Eastern States including 15 from Manipur, 17 from Mizoram, will be sent for the six years training in Germany. So far Tata Football Academy which is committed to the promotion of football in India has mentored and groomed some finest Indian footballers from Manipur such as Kiran Khongsai, Renedy, Gouramangi, Chitrasen. The selected Manipur players are Timothy Ginlianhau Tungnung (13), Ch Neilianthang Aimol (13), Ngambam Suraj Kumar (13), Sorokhaibam Punshiba (14), A Sanathoi (14), Golmei Apu Kabui (15), Md Jakir Khan (14), Naorem Kishan Singh (13), Telem Saphaba Singh (13), Ngairangbam Rakesh Singh (13), Chingkhosiam Dimngel (13), Sorokhaibam Robert (14), Lourembam Tenyson (13), Ningthoujam Bidyananda (13) and Ipham Imtiyas Khan (14) .
