FC Bayern Kids Clinic in Kolkata

As part of the FC Bayern Munich Allstars journey to Kolkata a Kids Clinic was organised on the first day of the trip on last Tuesday, November 16 at the Calcutta Cricket & Football Club by Adidas India. And the big prize for six of the 96 participating children under the age of 15 was a two week training stint in Munich with the relevant age group Academy team of FC Bayern Munich.

And the Allstars took their scouting work really seriously as a number of the team members are now scouts and youth coaches back in Europe. The lovely CCFC grounds had been split into three fields, the FCB players also split themselves into equal numbers with the children divided into teams to play out a tournament, so the scouts could have a proper look at all of them to select the final six. But as the scouts weren't sure which six to choose it was decided to have a sort of final with 12 players plus two goalkeepers showing themselves to all scouts in a final game.

And in the end the final list of six were decided by the Allstars and announced by me to the public. Amongst the six winning kids are four boys in Ram Chetri, Suman Rai, Donborlang Nongkynrih and Jacob Lalrawngbawla from Shillong Lajong FC plus two local Bengal boys in Sanchayan Samadder and Simanta Murmu. An interesting story and commendable fact that the youth development work being put in at Lajong FC brought such success against the mighty Bengal, which is said to be the home of Indian football. Lajong had brought down 10 children from the Northeast for the clinic with seven being from Shillong and three selected from trials in Sikkim. A great ratio for the club of the Northeast as Shillong Lajong refers to itself as.

But the scouts also liked another boy who should have been amongst the kids chosen to come to Germany, so maybe Raju Chakraborty will join the other six kids when they come to Munich next year. A final decision will have to be taken on this issue by the FCB officials. The dates aren't finalised yet, but it is likely that the children will be in Germany in March/April 2011 after the harsh winter is gone to enjoy a memorable camp with FCB.

And maybe we will hear more from these boys in the future...