Reliance Foundation's grassroots final selection camp begins

MUMBAI: The week-long final selection camp for Reliance Foundation's inaugural Young Champs football grassroots programme began at the Father Agnel multi sports complex facility at Vashi here today.

A total of 200 promising talents under the age group of 11 to 14 years -- being selected through the ISL clubs' multi-layer grassroots festivals across country -- are participating in the final selection camp expected to go on till May 26.

The youngsters will be further put through a programme that will test their skills as well as their ability to communicate -- leading to the selection of final set of children for the Young Champ scholarship in Under-12, Under-13 and Under-14 age categories, spanning three to five years.

The final list of children selected for the Reliance Foundation Young Champs residential football scholarship program, will be announced on May 27.

70 children coming through Atletico de Kolkata's grassroots festival is the largest group in the Reliance Foundation Young Champs final selection, followed by North East United FC's 25, Kerala Blasters FC's 24, Mumbai City FC's 20 and its suburbs, Chennaiyin FC's 17, Delhi Dynamos and FC Pune City 15 each and FC Goa's 14.

Chairperson, Reliance Foundation and Indian Super League, Nita Ambani said, "Young Champs grassroots programme is the soul of Indian Super League where we envisage to identify promising talents and provide the means to groom them to be the next generation professional footballers. I am happy to see the commitment shown by our ISL partners on the grassroots festivals and in helping Reliance Foundation identify these promising talents for the Young Champs final scholarship selection."