New Delhi: Twenty school children were selected to represent Indian Super League side Delhi Dynamos FC in the Reliance Young Champs Programme to be held in Mumbai.
The 20 children were selected from 200 participants in the Hero ISL Grassroots Festival held the Ambedkar Stadium here. Piet Hubers -- the ISL Grassroots Director -- was present at the event and interacted with the children while keenly observing their skills.
The 20 players selected from today's event will head to Mumbai to take part in the Reliance Young Champs Programme along with their counterparts from seven other Hero ISL teams. These budding footballers stand a chance to get a multi-year scholarship from Hero ISL.
Delhi Dynamos FC had kicked off their grassroots programme for this season with an open trial at the Ambedkar Stadium on April 11. The event saw a whopping turnout of over 1500, not just from Delhi, but also from its neighbouring states like Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. 200 children were then shortlisted to take part in today's event.
Vaibhav Manchanda, Vice President Delhi Dynamos FC, said: "We have always believed in developing the beautiful game from the ground up. Even before our first season in 2014, we launched our maiden grassroots initiative - Junior Dynamos - in Delhi NCR. It was one of the largest Inter-School Football Tournaments in Delhi at the time, and we saw a participation of over 2400 Players from over 180 schools," he said.
"We are proud to see many children from Junior Dynamos programme coming for the Open Trial and some have even cleared the first round. We are currently working on longer term plans for Grassroots Development," he added.
