Next Messi may be from Nilgiris tea estate

Ooty:With the World Cup football fever just over, no one can deny the excitement the month long tournament provided to its fans. While the exuberance of Messi, Neymar, and the golden boy of German soccer, Mario Goetze, and also the goal keeping talents of Manual Neuer have made a lasting impact on football fans across the world, for Indian soccer fans, the question that is lingering on their minds is why this country has never made it to the soccer World Cup, when it will, and what needs to be done to produce 11 exceptional soccer players from the 1 billion population in the country to challenge the world.

The Tea Board of India has realised, as per the noted German model, that the soccer talent search should start from the grassroots-level to identify and nurture budding talent who will make a mark in the future. In line with this thinking, the Tea Board has inked an agreement with the country’s outstanding team, East Bengal Club of Kolkota, to unearth and train football talent amongst wards of tea plantation workers and small tea growers.

Nilgiris collector, Dr P. Sankar, inaugurating the project on Monday, said this was a golden opportunity for the selected football players to hone their skills to achieve glory. About 120 short-listed budding players in the age group of 13-21 years assembled in Ooty for the initial round of training.