AIFF academy boys Milan, Bidyananda get called up for trials by PSV Eindhoven

Indian players need to start training abroad or get picked up by foreign clubs at a young age if they are to develop into top talents who can ply their trade abroad — and while rumours of clubs like Inter Milan and Barcelona being interested in a couple of players from AIFF’s Elite Academy have circulated before, it is Dutch club PSV Eindhoven who have made the first material move on them. Milan Basumatary and Bidyananda Singh, two cadets from AIFF’s Elite Academy in Goa have been chosen for trials at PSV — a development that shows that Europe’s clubs are in fact keeping an eye on India’s youngsters. [caption id=“attachment_1652457” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Bidyananda has been an intergral part of India’s youth setup. AIFF[/caption] While Milan and Bidya try to impress their new club, the AIFF U-16 Kalyani Regional Academy boys will play two international tournaments in the Netherlands besides playing a host of friendly matches including one with PSV’s Academy team. Kushal Das, General Secretary, AIFF stated it’s the “objective of the AIFF Academies to develop players both for domestic clubs as well as international clubs and academies.” “We are extremely happy that Milan and Bidyananda have got this opportunity to showcase their talent in one of the best environments and we hope that some club or academy in the Netherlands get impressed with their talent and select them for further training,” he told www.the-aiff.com. AIFF’s Technical Director Robert Baan felt the “trials will help the duo a lot.” “They will train on top quality fields with top quality coaches and with the best players from this age group in the Netherlands. The tempo of the sessions will be very high and it will surely take some sessions before they will adapt. But after a few days of training, they will match with the local players and it will give them a lot of confidence,” he said. “We are also hoping that in the time to come, more players from our academies in Kalyani, Goa and Bangalore would get such opportunities to showcase their talent and be picked by top clubs, international academies and clubs for the youth teams,” Das added. “We will be filming their sessions we will show it to the players who stayed back in Goa to show about the experience and how much more training and matches is needed to compete at the highest-level,” Baan informed.