Six talented youngsters receive trial call-ups at the Spikes & Grass Talents Cup 2015

by Kaushal Shukla June 18, 2015

Spikes & Grass who organized a Talents Cup on Saturday, 13th June 2015 had invited esteemed coaches from the MDFA Leagues to scout for raw talent to play for their teams.

The panel of coaches which included Shah Mohammed, the coach of Leher Foundation and Ehsan the coach of Magic Bus were pleasantly surprised with the quality of players on show and were glad to get an opportunity to see the players. “We were really surprised to see the quality these players have despite not playing for any team and we would like to thank Spikes & Grass for the opportunity to have a closer look at these talented boys”, said the delighted coach Ehsan.

Shah Mohammed echoed his fellow coach’s views and felt the Spikes & Grass tournament is a great initiative for MDFA sides to get really good players, playing for their teams. “Many of these boys don’t get the platform. They play in various tournaments across the city but no one notices them. So it’s a great initiative from Spikes & Grass to invite coaches and help them get into a team”.

The duo were particularly impressed with the outstation team from Gujarat named Freak Football Club and even though they crashed out in the first round, the duo saw plenty of potential in them. “The team from Gujarat particularly impressed me. They had many brilliant individual players with great potential, who with some polishing could be great assets to so many teams in the MDFA Leagues”, Ehsan said.

Shah Mohammed highlighted the importance of player’s attitudes on the pitch as a major factor for selection. “I will of course look at their skills, but more importantly I will see their attitude on the pitch. If you don’t have the right attitude, you will spoil the entire team”.

After observing the players for the entire day, the coaches shortlisted six players and called them for trials for their respective sides.

The list of the players selected is as follows:

1. Nikhil Khandelwal (HBFC)
2. Mark Johnson (HBFC)
3. Krishna Jamdare (Castle Boys)
4. Harshit Talesara (Freak FC)
5. Sourabh Mani (Freak FC)
6. Piyush Tahalramani (Freak FC)

It was great to see the Spikes & Grass Talents Cup unearthing talent not just Mumbai but also from Gujarat in their very first attempt. The organization will conduct yet another talent hunt this time for the U-19 age group sometime soon in the future.

Times are good for budding footballers in Mumbai, thanks to Spikes & Grass and their urge to unearth talents.