Kolkata school win 2012 Mahindra Youth Football Challenge

Kolkata's Pandua S.B.S. High School have won the second edition of the Mahindra Youth Football Challenge. They beat Central Reserve Police Force School from Delhi 5-0 in the final of the inter-city leg of the under-14 schools tournament at the Bangalore Football Stadium on Wednesday.

Pandua S.B.S. High School were impressive throughout the tournament as they won all their five group matches and then went on to win the final. The champions received a champions trophy and prize money of Rs 50,000, while the runners-up also got a trophy and prize money of Rs 30,000.

The six participating schools where - St. Aloysius High School, Bangalore; CRPF School, Delhi; St. Britto's High School, Goa; Malabar Special Police (MSP) Higher Secondary School, Malappuram, Kerala; Pandua High School, Kolkata and Don Bosco High School, Matunga, Mumbai - who played each other in a round robin league from Thursday last week to Tuesday and the top two sides meet again on Wednesday in the finals at the Bangalore Football Stadium.

Individual Player Awards

Man of the Match: Jayanta Murmu (Pandua High School (Kolkata)
Best goalkeeper: Anuj Kumar (CRPF School, Delhi)
Best defender: Sufaid Ali (Malabar Special Police Higher Secondary School, Kerala)
Best midfielder: Mangal Murmu (Pandua High School (Kolkata)
Best striker: Jayanta Murmu (Pandua High School (Kolkata)


Also present were youth coaches from Scottish giants Celtic Glasgow FC, who watched all the matches and picked 22 boys for a three day camp in Bangalore. The best two to four would be flown to Glasgow for up to two weeks to see Celtic in action, their facilities, train with the Academy and more.

Boys selected for Camp

Srimanth Paul, Premananda Singha, Mangal Murmu, Sheikh Raju, Jagannath Singh, Jayanta Murmu, Sunil Tudu, Palas Das, Pardip Rajak, Prakash Khetrapal (all Pandua High School, Kolkata); Mukesh Kumar, Anuj Kumar, Gaurav Bora, Abhishek Yadav (all CRPF School, Delhi); Vikrant Belwalkar, Nathan Fernandes (both Don Bosco High School, Matunga, Mumbai); James A., Singreipam R. (St. Aloysius High School, Bangalore); Emmanuel Souza, Marc D'Cruz (both St. Britto's High School, Goa), M.D. Sajid Khan, Sufaid Ali (both Malabar Special Police Higher Secondary School, Kerala)