French club FC Metz to scout young football talent in India

A football tournament will be organised here for U-13 and U-15 age groups to scout young talents and sponsor their training at the French football club FC Metz’s academy. Edukick Sports, in association with Metz, currently playing in the second level in the French league system, today announced a tournament ‘My Chance’ which will involve kids from over 100 schools in the Delhi-NCR region. [caption id=“attachment_1369273” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The three-day tournament will be held in the last week of April on four and seven-a-side formats in both the groups. Reuters[/caption] The three-day tournament will be held in the last week of April on four and seven-a-side formats in both the groups: “The purpose of organising this tournament is to move in to the direction of creating educated football players. There is immense potential in Indian kids, it’s just that they require opportunities to rub shoulders against international players,” said former Indian football team manager Eric Benny, who is the Managing Director of Sportkick. “We haven’t finalised the exact number of kids we will be taking for the foreign exposure. It could be two or three,” he said. The academy, FC Metz Centre de Formation, has a long-list international stars such as Robert Pires, Louis Saha and Emmanuel Adebayor, who have been groomed by it. Two Indian youngsters are currently undergoing training at the prestigious academy in France while pursuing their studies. The academy director, Denis Schaeffer said he was impressed by the talent of the Indian boys but they require hardwork to make themselves count among world’s best. “I see lot of potential in Indian players. I find no reason why an Indian player can’t play in top-European football. It’s just that they will have to learn from whatever opportunities come their way,” said Schaeffer. PTI