For the first time in the history of the Gothia Cup, considered the World Youth Cup in football, a Youth Team from a club playing in the Hero Indian Super League is battling for top honours along with 1,674 other teams from 81 Nations.
The Delhi Dynamos Football Club and the Subroto Mukherjee Educational Society have been preparing this team picked from the highly competitive inter-school national football tournament, the Subroto Cup, for over two months for this high profile tournament. President of the Delhi Dynamos, Mr. Prashant Agarwal is confident that his team is well equipped to take the world’s best on and begin a new era in Indian football.
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The 14-member squad of young and exciting talent from across the country is in Sweden to launch its campaign in the championship that began yesterday and will end on July 23.
The top 25 players in the under-17 category were recruited after intensive scouting during last year’s Subroto Cup. They were awarded a training programme by Delhi Dynamos at the New Willingdon Camp in Delhi with an eye on the Gothia Cup. The list was later narrowed down to 14 to meet the tournament’s regulations.
“I am really excited about this team. I think it can compete with the best in the world. Irrespective of the results, all the players are winners for having made it this far. They are all lions and with more exposure and experience, like at the Gothia Cup, it’s only a matter of time before their roar can be heard far and wide.” said Prashant Agarwal.
“This is the first time in the history of the Subroto Cup that players have been selected to participate in an international tournament,” said Wing Commander Vijay Yadav, secretary of Subroto Mukherjee Education Society.
The Delhi Dynamos FC-Subroto Cup U-18 team played its first two fixtures of the Gothia Cup on Monday, the 18th of July.
While the lads lost their first fixture against JFV HanseLübeck, with the game ending of 5-2, the second match was a much closer and keenly contested affair. The team went down fighting in their second fixture against Norwegian side SK Sprint-Jeløy1, the match ended 1-0. The team put up a spirited display and they hold a chance to qualify given the team win the next two games.
The Squad: Samir Tamang, Rahul KP, Saurabh Bhanwala, Amrit Tamang, SauravToppoOrawn, BanmanroyNongsie, Kiki FernandesSyiemlieth, T. Surjakant Singh, Shubham Rana, Rahul Basumata, Himanshu, Faisal Wangnoo, TusharChhibbar, Mani Maran
Coaches: Shakti Chauhan and Raman Vijayan
