Mahindra Youth Football Challenge Season 2 launched; Young talent to be groomed by Celtic Football Club

Three footballers, Bishal Harizan and Jayanta Mondal from Kolkata and Mani Maran R. from Bangalore, emerged the best three footballers from the first season of the Mahindra Youth Football Challenge. After intense football action across six cities, involving 32 schools from each city, these three were picked after the Inter-City Challenge and got an opportunity to avail of a ten-day intensive coaching camp in Glasgow with the Celtic Football Club.

The three are back, richer and wiser in terms of footballing talent in time to launch the second edition of the Mahindra Youth Football Challenge, an under-14 Schools Football Tournament-cum-Talent Hunt, an initiative by the Mahindra Group to promote football at the grass root level. The Mahindra Youth Football Challenge will continue to partner with Scottish football giants, Celtic Football Club, who will take on the responsibility of training and developing young talent identified through the initiative.

Bishal Harizan, Jayanta Mondal and Mani Maran spent fruitful days at Celtic FC, where they got an opportunity to watch a Scottish Premier League game at Celtic Park, involving Celtic FC and Motherwell FC and another at Ibrox Stadium featuring Celtic FC vs Glasgow Rangers. Their training there involved individual technique training, multiple sessions of Sports Science Testing, learning the right warm up techniques with the under-19 team, and daily coaching sessions with the Celtic Under-15 team. Bangalore's Mani Maran was then selected to represent the Celtic FC Under-16 team to play against the Monash Football Club from Melbourne, Australia, capping a successful and satisfying experience for the three lads.

The second season will also be played in the six cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Goa, Bangalore and Kerala, involving the top 32 schools from each city, but a host of exciting initiatives will be added to ensure that the net is cast wider to identify the most talented junior football players in the country. The MYFC initiative is being promoted and executed by leading sports management company, Procam International.

This was announced by Mufaddal Choonia, Dy. General Manager, Corporate Strategy, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., along with P N Sankaran of Procam International.

Speaking on the occasion, Choonia said "We are proud of Bishal, Jayanta and Mani and wish them a fabulous future in football. Our commitment to nurture the sport remains steadfast and we are looking forward to the second season with a great deal of excitement."

Peter Lowell, Chief Executive of Celtic Football Club had this to say, "Celtic Football Club was delighted to host the three successful players during the past week at our Youth Academy here in Scotland. The boys acquitted themselves very well - working with many of our elite squads - and we will be keeping a close eye on their future development. We are looking forward to another fantastic series of events over the next 12 months to ensure that the Mahindra Youth Football Challenge continues to grow as THE youth football event in India."

Expressing his views on the second edition of this top-class event, Vivek B Singh, Joint Managing Director, Procam International, said, "The Mahindra Youth Football Challenge has provided a platform to promote grassroots football in the true sense, with lesser known schools putting it across their fancied counterparts and propelling their players into the limelight. Procam International is indeed proud to be part of this novel initiative and committed to evolve and improvise in order to help fructify the dreams of talented under-14 football players,"

The inaugural edition of the Mahindra Youth Football Challenge was won by Sukantanagar Vidyaniketan School, Kolkatta, while Govt. Sports School, Bangalore finished runner-up. Mumbai was represented by Don Bosco, Matunga, who had emerged the champion school of Mumbai.

Looking back on the 1st Mahindra Youth Football Challenge, Stephen Frail, the head coach from Celtic FC had this to say, "The Mahindra Youth Football Challenge has been a great success. The Mahindra organisation, in partnership with the Celtic Football Club, has put together an exciting project. With the help and expertise of Procam International the tournament has provided a platform and opportunity for young players from across India to showcase their talent and, hopefully, earn a chance to further enhance their ability by visiting Glasgow. Celtic Football Club is very proud to be part of such a project."

The second edition of the Mahindra Youth Football Challenge will be played in the same format as the inaugural edition, whereby 32 schools in each of the six cities/states will be invited to play a knockout round. This will result in a winning team from each city. These winning teams will then play against each other. The winners will be crowned the Champion of the Mahindra Youth Football Challenge.

The enhancements in the second year will include 25 boys being selected for the coaching clinic as against 22 in the first year. The three boys who travelled to Glasgow, Bishal, Jayanta and Mani will also be invited for this coaching clinic to ensure that they get another opportunity to benefit from the specialized coaching. There will be growing involvement from Celtic FC, with the players benefiting in the form of kit and equipment. Training videos will be posted on MYFC website along with specialized articles on training and nutrition. Details of every leg will be up on the MYFC Website, while radio updates of results and schedules will be running in every city through 92.7 BIG FM, who will continue to be Radio Partners to the event.

A CHANCE TO LEARN FROM THE BEST: The winning schools from the six cities and their coaches will benefit from a four-day coaching camp to be conducted by a panel of visiting coaches from the Celtic Football Club before the Inter-City Challenge. This same panel will then shortlist 25 players from the Inter-City Challenge who will further undergo an intensive five-day long coaching clinic where two to four of the best players will be picked to travel to Scotland and the Celtic Football Club for further intensive training.