Mumbai FC launches its first Grassroots Football School!

by Prajkta Tagelly December 23, 2014

Mumbai – 23rd December: Mumbai FC inaugurated its first ever Grassroots Football School in the city yesterday. The launch marks an important day in the history of Mumbai FC and as it looks to produce home-grown footballing stars who would go on to represent both club and country.

The launch was met with a resounding response from the kids and parents from the neighborhood and more than 100 kids were part of the festival that kick-started the football school. The school was launched near Kashinath Ghanekar Sabhagruha in Thane.

The event was marked by a display of skills from Mumbai FC U-19 team and senior coaches like Mr. Taposh Ghosh under the guidance of Mr. Kundan Chandra (Head – Youth Development, Mumbai FC). The coaches took the kids through some fun-filled football sessions.

Kundan Chandra, who will be spearheading this initiative said, “We have a structured training plan for these kids. I am really happy with the first football school being launched and look forward to many others that will be set up in the future. Kids who complete seven years of training with us will have the strong fundamental knowledge of the game and will grow into great players to feed our age group teams and progress to our senior team over the years. With us, they have a transparent ladder that can lead them from grassroots to professional football.”

The football schools will have kids from three age groups (Under-8, Under-10 & Under-12) being trained under the guidance of licensed coaches. Each age group will be training 3-4 days a week over the entire year and participating in quarterly football festivals conducted by the club.

Elated by the launch of the first football school, Mumbai FC’s Dy. Vice President, Mr. Atul Badgamia said, “Millennium Sports is an important partner for us in implementing this project with their proficiency in various sports verticals. Mumbai has a lot of footballing potential and we aim to tap this potential to create some fantastic players in the future. We have received a fabulous response from parents and look forward to the kids having fun with football.”
Mumbai Football Club had entered into a landmark agreement with Millennium Sports Pvt Ltd in October 2014 to jointly implement its ambitious Grassroots Football Project.

Founder & CEO of Millennium Sports, Chinar Deshpande, gave his valuable insight on this potent alliance by stating that, “Our partnership with Mumbai FC is an ideal example of how Millennium Sports is executing its growth strategy aggressively. This partnership is long-term; and this grassroots program is just a stepping stone for us to grow our football vertical in a very systematic way and we are committed to go beyond just coaching and extend all other business services to this relationship. We are really happy to have launched our first Grassroots Football School.”

Mumbai FC and Millennium Sports aim to start 8 Grassroots Football Coaching Schools by March 2015.