Inside FC Madras, a youth academy with state-of-the-art facilities striving to find a 'Messi from Madras'

FC Madras, a youth academy based in Chennai, recently unveiled their new training and residential facility in Mahabalipuram. Sportskeeda was among various news organizations invited for a tour of the academy that aims to prepare under-13 and under-15 boys for a professional football career without compromising on their education.

The 23-acre facility has been built in accordance with FIFA standards as specified by the All Indian Football Federation and the Asian Football Confederation. It boasts three training pitches - a fully natural turf called Furry Field, a fully artificial turf named Bushy Tail Meadow and a hybrid pitch called Scamper Park.

The Furry Field, at dimensions of 155 x 74, is the longest in India, according to FC Madras' Director of Sports and Governance, CKM Dhananjai. He also stated that Scamper Park, which will be the home turf for the teams at the academy, is the first of its kind in East Asia.

All three pitches are also broadcast ready and Dhananjai believes Scamper Park can even host international teams. They also have Pixelot artificial cameras that automatically record matches and send snippets for video analysis that will be made available to the coaches.

A bird's eye view of all three pitches at the Mahabalipuram facility. [Courtesy: FC Madras]

The tour included a press conference with Girish Mathrubootham, founder of FC Madras. He outlined the vision of the venture and said:

“The dream is to find the next Messi from Madras. Our country has amazing young sporting talent that deserves success but needs the infrastructure, environment, and opportunity to unlock their true potential.

“With the new FC Madras campus, I believe we have taken another step forward to inspire other leaders and businesses to create similar academies because our future champions need it.”

Dhananjai was notably a data analyst for the Indian cricket team and is currently the Data Performance Manager for the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League.

Apart from him, FC Madras have also finalized the appointments of two big names from Indian football in Shanmugham Venkatesh and Abhishek Yadav.

Venkatesh, a former captain of the Indian team, was also an assistant coach for the Blue Tigers. He was most recently East Bengal's assistant coach during ISL 2022-23 and is set to take over as FC Madras' Technical Director.

Abhishek, meanwhile, previously captained India, winning 43 caps, and has also served as general secretary for the AIFF. He is set to become the club's Chief Executive Officer.

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FC Madras' scouting process included trials with students from across the country

During the tour of the facility, Dhananjai provided inputs on FC Madras' scouting process.

The academy scouted 2,416 boys from across the country in their last intake, of which around 20% were from their home state of Tamil Nadu. They also scouted plenty of candidates from Kerala and the North East, while touching on states such as Punjab, West Bengal and Karnataka as well.

Of those 2,416 children, FC Madras short-listed 100 for a rigorous selection camp in Chennai. The top 50 candidates from the camp were then provided scholarships for the academy's residential program.

Apart from actively learning their craft in football, Dhananjai explained that these 50 children will also receive a formal education. The academy has linked up with the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) to ensure they can pursue their education. Additionally, they will also be imparted life skills.

Dhananjai explained that they believe integrating education and life skills with football would allow parents to be more willing to send their wards for the program. Additionally, Mathrubootham outlined how it would benefit the children themselves.

While he would like to see all of FC Madras' players make it into the national team, he is aware that that may not be possible. He stated that even if only 2% become professional footballers, the other 98% will still be in a position to progress in their personal lives due to the education and life skills they have.

Mathrubootham also added:

“One of the things we want to do is [help the children] create a career in sport. There are so many career options in sport - whether it's coaching, sports medicine, analytics, sports event management.

“What we want to do is, first of all, make sure these kids don't lose out on their education. Once you have your schooling done and if you know that you can get into a college, even if you don't turn pro, you can always pick a sport-based undergraduate or post-graduate program.

“Our children need to know these are all possible and that they will actually be at an advantage.”

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FC Madras' plans for the future

FC Madras have currently placed impetus on coaching children in the U13 and U15 categories. This has already reaped dividends as well.

One of their students, midfielder Manglenthang Kipgen, made three appearances for Roundglass Punjab FC in the I-League this season as his side lifted the title. The 17-year-old looks set to compete in the ISL next season.

Mathrubootham explained that they could venture further beyond the U13 and U15 age categories in the future.

“When these kids grow up, we are not going to send them out at 15. We will form the U16 or U18 team,” the FC Madras founder said.

“In the summer, when these kids go home, we will conduct summer camps for one or two weeks for community engagement. Those will be on a paid basis where people who can't come everyday can come for a one-week residential program.

“We want more players to come. We will have beginner and intermediate level programs so that we can spot talent. We also [recently] conducted a baby league with 700 players from 35 talents. We saw really young talent - children who are 6, 7, 8 years old.”