DORTMUND DREAM! ABOUT 50 INDIANS TO TRAIN IN GERMANY

About 50 youngsters from India would get to train in the Borussia Dortmund system of football coaching thanks to the tie-up between Tata Trusts U Dream Football project and the German Club, which was announced in the city yesterday.

Under the U Dream project, 15 players were already sent to Germany last year to train there for six years. A batch of 35 players from the North East was added in January this year and would spend about 10 months each year in Bitburg, Germany.

Under the program, six centres of excellence will be established in the North East to identify and nurture talent and the best among them will be sent to Germany every year, he added.

The boys are in the age group of 12-14 years and the aim of the programme is to ensure that all enrolled players play professional football by placing them in clubs across Europe, the Americas and Asia, including India.

As per the programme currently charted, each week the trainees play games against top-ranked youth sides in the region as well as those in Belgium and Luxembourg and so far the team has won 15 out of 20 games and lost three.

R Venkatramanan, Managing Trustee of Tata Trust, said the decision to start from the North East was due to the enthusiasm for the sport in the region. “We have started with the North East but we have our presence in about 17 states in India and we would soon be working closely with various state associations to expand the program.”