SPMSS, HS Boarding School crowned winners of Star Sports Young Heroes in Pune

The team from SPMSS, HS Boarding School were crowned winners of the Pune leg

Star Sports launched its latest sporting venture ‘Young Heroes’ presented by Parle and in association with IDBI Federal Life Insurance to handpick the 16 most talented football players from schools from 15 different cities. It is a 7 a side U-15 school football tournament.

SPMSS, HS Boarding School was crowned champions in the Pune leg of the Young Heroes tournament as they defeated Hill Green HS 5-0 and qualified themselves for the National Finals. In order to identify young talent, the country’s largest student direct contact programme from the grassroots through to the scouting program, Young Heroes completes its campaign in Pune where Neeraj Chavan and Abhishek Suryavanshi were selected through the scouting process at the Police ground over the last two days. They will be a part of 45 selected students who will be mentored by specialized coaches.

All of the 32 shortlisted schools were determined and displayed some enthusiastic talent. There were some standout performances by few teams’ like – J N Petit, St. Bishops, Symbiosis International, and Orbis International School whose footballers played with passion, grit and determination as a unit. 32 selected schools from Pune were divided into 8 groups, where each school played three matches in the group stage followed by the knock-outs, semi-finals and finals.

Mr. Yan Law, Former Indian U19 footballer (also the youngest licensed coach of the country) said, “We witnessed some exciting and exhilarating games in the last two days in Pune. The young players played the game with passion, enthusiasm and zeal.

“Young Heroes’ tournament has boosted up all the young students of the country with optimism and inspiration to perform better and aim to play football for their country, in days to come.

“My heartiest congratulations to the winning team along with the young footballers selected from Pune, through the scouting process. I am sure they will make the city proud with their skills once they graduate to the elite league of football.”

In its next destination – Shillong, Young Heroes will continue the scouting program. Young Heroes is committed to elevate the level of football at the grassroots with the intent to give birth to the football heroes of future. The tournament will see over 100 days of activation programme across the participating schools. All through the tournament, around 45 boys will get selected to undergo a training camp, after which the best 16 will be handpicked by professional coaches to go on an international exposure trip to Spain.