Ex-India Internationals launch Football School

The three ex-Indian internationals Abhishek Yadav, Shanmugam Venkatesh and Deepak Kumar Mondal have launched the Football School of India in collaboration with the Dr. Pillai's Global Academy in New Panvel on the outskirts of Mumbai. The aim of the FSI is to develop the next generation of Indian football talent with 150 children having already enrolled themselves into the training program.

Abhishek Yadav as the president of the FSI said, "Through our training programme, we aim to build strong contenders for the national team."

What is a strength of these former Indian internationals is their years of experience on the Indian football circuit and the fact that they played in different positions which should give the kids a good inside then Deepak Mondal was a defender, Venkatesh a midfielder and Abhishek a striker.

The training will be conducted on the artificial turf of the Dr. Pillai's Global Academy in New Panvel.

The FSI is another initiative by footballers in India after a similar program was launched by Baichung Bhutia under the name of the Baichung Bhutia Football Schools.

TFA felicitates Deepak Mondal

Jamshedpur's Tata Football Academy earlier today felicitated international defender Deepak Kumar Mondal for being the first former cadet of the Academy to receive an Arjuna Award. The info came as a surprise to me that no TFA cadet had earlier been awarded an Arjuna Award, but then how often do footballers get the Arjuna Award...

Present on the occasion were members of TFA management board and the Chief of corporate social services of Tata Steel, Satish Pillai. Others from Tata Steel and the Tata Football Academy also graced the occasion.

Deepak said that he was fortunate to be the first TFA cadet to have received an Arjuna Award. Deepak had graduated from the Tata Football Academy in 1998 in a batch along with others like Naseem Akhtar, Mahesh Gawli, James Lukram Singh, Noel Anthony Wilson, Roque Barreto, Dipankar Roy and Sheikh Sanjeeb. In his club career Deepak has played for JCT, East Bengal, Mahindra United and Mohun Bagan.

To recap. Deepak was the first footballer in eight years to receive the Arjuna Award a couple of months back. Deepak has been a player with the Indian national team for over a decade, a dependable no-nonsense kind of guy on and off the field, who is liked by one and all. The Arjuna award for Deepak comes as much-needed recognition for the national football team which has won the Nehru Cup 2007 & 2009 plus the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup to qualify for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup.

Arjuna Awards for Deepak & Chhetri

In great news which came out of Delhi last night, seasoned defender Deepak Kumar Mondal and striker Sunil Chhetri have been named amongst this years awardees for the prestigious Arjuna Award, the National Sports Award of India. The winner of all the awards will receive theirs from President Pratibha Patil on National Sports Day on August 29 at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi.

For the first time ever in the history of the Arjuna Awards two footballers will be given the award in the same year. This comes as much-needed recognition for the national football team which has won the Nehru Cup 2007 & 2009 plus the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup to qualify for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup.

Deepak has been a player with the Indian national team for over a decade, a dependable no-nonsense kind of guy on and off the field, while Sunil Chhetri has been the rising star of Indian football over the last few years and has now taken over the mantle from Baichung Bhutia as our lone international player abroad. And the Delhi lad has scored many crucial goals over the last few years for Team India in their title triumphs.

But on such a happy day we should not forget that some players have been overlooked for years and might never get the recognition that they deserve. I am talking about players like Mahesh Gawli, Climax Lawrence or a Renedy Singh who over the last few years have been the mainstay of the national team; have been part of this building process and have seen a lot over the last decade of Indian football. Hopefully some of them will get an Arjuna Award next year.


List of Awardees

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awardee: Saina Nehwal (Badminton)

Arjuna Awardees 2010: Joseph Abraham (Athletics), Krishna Punia (Athletics), Dinesh Kumar (Boxing), Parimarjan Negi (Chess), Jhulan Goswami (Cricket), Deepak Mondal (Football), Sunil Chhetri (Football), Sandeep Singh (Hockey), Jasjit Kaur (Hockey), Rajiv Tomar (Wrestling), Jajseer Singh (Paralympics), Dinesh (Kabaddi), Kapil Dev (Volleyball), Rehan Poncha (Swimming), Sanjeev Rajput (Shooting)

Dronacharya Awardees: A.K. Bansal (Hockey), N Ibomcha Singh (Boxing), Subhash Aggarwal (Billiards & Snooker), A.K. Kutty (lifetime, Athletics), Captain Chand Roop (lifetime, Wrestling)