CHENNAI, SEPT 17,
German club Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday became the latest European club to enter India to develop youth football and help train Indian coaches after World1 Sports, a sports consulting firm, announced the club as its official grassroots partner in the country.
Speaking at the event, Suresh Letchmanan, Dortmund’s managing director of the Asia-Pacific region said, “We are honoured to be here in India and to forge this relationship. We have always been keen believers in the development of youth football and are hoping we can guide and find a way to develop youth football in India. At the same time, we also want to use this opportunity to win more Black and Yellow hearts and build the BVB brand further in India.
“The objective is to see how we can further train kids and coaches in India in the BVB way, without any shortcuts. We hope we can eventually find players that could live their dreams to play in the local league here in India. That’s the first step and hopefully then take the bigger step of playing in Asia and in Europe in the possible future,” he added.
In partnership with Eight Goals One Foundation (8one), W1 Sports has been running a grassroots initiative, the Young Legends’ League (YLL) in Manipur and Mizoram over the last two and three years respectively. The program targets children between the age of five and 12 across and enrols them in five months of weekly matches.
Seven players from the project have been awarded 100 percent scholarships in top residential football academies across India, including ISL champion Bengaluru FC.
In Tamil Nadu, World1 Sports has tied up with Velammal institutions and through its 46 schools aims to reach over 1,50,000 students.
