A tie-up between Real Madrid and an Indian club may bring Dharavi into the spotlight again

A view of the Dharavi slums

For the first time in history, legendary Spanish club Real Madrid is stepping into Indian football. And the more interesting part in the club’s forthcoming activities in Indian football is its hunt for talent in the grass root level at the infamous Dharavi slum in Mumbai. Once again, after the Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire, Dharavi is likely to come under the spotlight of the media as well as the country’s football fraternity.

South United is a Bengaluru-based football club which runs a coaching camp in Dharavi, Mumbai. Around 125 kids play the game with a hope that football will one day pave the way for financial and mental stability. South United Club, backed up by Loco Sports, provides kits and tiffins for these footballers. Every Saturday and Sunday, coaches attend training programmes at the slum. One of the coaches, a former Indian international, Raman Vijayan, while commenting on the Dharavi training camp, said, “You simply cannot believe that there are at least 10 to 15 under-13 and under-16 boys who have tremendous potential considering their basic skill. I won’t be surprised if three or four of them represent India within next five years. But they must be nurtured.”

In a bid to nurture these footballers, South United has tied up with the Real Madrid foundation on the basis of a youth development programme. An experienced coach from Real Madrid academy named Escudero Tello Guillermo is scheduled to arrive in Mumbai on May 1 for a period of nine days. And South United has organized a one-day visit to its Dharavi training centre where Guillermo will be observing the young footballers from the slum.

One of the club’s senior marketing executives, Dhru Rawat said, “The tie-up has been made temporarily, precisely for the training programme. But it is going to be long-term in near future. Guillermo, after spending nine days in Mumbai, will also go to Bengaluru. South United has a full-fledged setup with great infrastructure there. Now our residential football school is being constructed. Guillermo will also conduct a coaches’ education programme in Bengaluru and then he will return to Madrid.”

The club, in its plans on the association with Real Madrid, is going to make a long term tie-up with the Real Madrid foundation. The purpose is to send its best students to the Real Madrid academy in near future. Vijayan said, “Anybody from Dharavi or from our training programme in Bengaluru that impresses the Real academy coaches in the near future will go to Madrid for training. That day will be a great day for us, and a dream come true. And once it gets fulfilled, we have another dream. That is to bring megastars like Cristiano Ronaldo or Karim Benzema here in our training programme for a day. Can you imagine how thrilled the boys will be with their presence?”