Thrissur: The residential football academy of Red Star FC at Kuttanellur in Thrissur is all set for the national-level Under-16 competition in Goa. It beat three other teams at the state-level including the youth team of Kerala Blasters' Prodigy Sportz, Sept Kozhikode and Kovalam FC in the home and away matches. The team which held the training camps for the national event on the synthetic grass ground of Thrissur Corporation Stadium has reached Goa to take on Sudeva FC, Delhi, at Nagoa Stadium 3 pm on January 31.
Other teams in the group are Bengaluru FC and DSK Shivajians Pune. If they win, they could move on to Mumbai to play the semifinals and finals. The Red Star which began as an academy four years ago now has 50 fifty shareholders with NRI businessman C. K. Menon as the chairman and Jenis Kottellurkaran as the president.
They conducted admissions for 25 students holding national-level trials. Four of the players from the academy, Jithin from Kozhikode, Vajeesh and Roshan (Thrissur), Fahad (Kannur), were selected to the Indian Under-17 camp and Rishi Dutt from Thrissur is presently in the Indian U-19 team, academy officials told DC. Ranjith T. A. with A-licence (Asian level) is the present coach of the team.
