Sixteen schoolboys set for Arsenal festival

MUMBAI: Sixteen handpicked schoolboys from thousands of aspirants in the Tata Tea Arsenal Soccer Programme are set to leave for London on Sunday to take part in the 18th Arsenal International Soccer Festival in the United Kingdom and a traning camp.
    
The 16 boys, chosen by Arsenal coaches Paul Shipwright and Martin Davis from a shorlisted 30-strong list, will be led by Kiran Kumar of St. Angel's English High School in Bangalore while St. Lawrence High School (Kolkata) boy Karim Misri will be his deputy, it was announced at a media conference on Friday.
    
The squad would be accompanied by former Iranian international Jamshed Nassiri, head of the talent scouts who selected the thirty boys after an intensive two-week training camp from the vast majority of aspirants.
    
Nassiri said the scouts (the others being Harjinder Singh, Brahmanand Sankwalkar, Sharaf Ali and Premnath Philips) looked for talent, technique and stamina in the boys.
    
"If you have talent, technique and stamina to play the game nobody can stop you. The kids I saw during the course of Soccer Stars programme lacked neither the enthusiasm nor attitude needed for an intense sport like soccer. There's genuine and abundant talent waiting to be tapped in this country," said the former striker who has been living in Kolkata for the last 28 years.
    
He also wanted more corporates to get involved in football development in the country like Tata Tea have done.

Speaking on behalf of the sixteen chosen boys, Mumbai's Siddharth Singh said that the training programme they had undergone in Kolkata under the tutelage of Arsenal's Shipwright and Davis "was a completely different experience" to what they had seen so far.
    
"They completely transformed the way we thought about football. There were various kinds of drills and it was more fun," he said.
    
The Indian boys have been placed in the same group as  SA, Denmark and England in the festival to be held from July 26-August 3 at the Royal Holloway University in Surrey.
    
The other participating teams would represent Canada, South American countries, Spain, Portugal, Egypt, Sweden, Malaysia, Australia and a dozen English counties, it was announced.
    
The chosen Indian boys are: Avijit De (Bangalore), Arindam Mitra (Kolkata), Kiran Kumar (Capt., Bangalore), Shane Anthony Temodo (Goa), Sumit Das (Kolkata), Rickin Dang (Mumbai), Jaksram Sangma (Shillong), Daniel Lalhrwaitiwanga (Delhi), Jitu Das (Kolkata), Siddharth Singh (Mumbai), Yan Cheng Law (Kolkata), Mojaffar Ali (Kolkata), Avya Gujral (Delhi), Deepak Ravi (Bangalore), Jessammy Clivenson Tariang (Shillong) and Karim Mistri (Vice-capt., Kolkata).

Coach: Jamshed Nassiri.