MILAN - They land tonight and tomorrow they’ll be on the pitch at the Centro
Sportivo Giacinto Facchetti: sixteen of India’s best U-15 players who took on
the Tata Tea Jaago Re Inter Milan Soccer Stars, the largest youth tournament in
India, twinned with the Nerazzurri. An old song once sang that "one in a
thousand makes it", but here there were actually sixteen who made it out of a
million lads from 1,200 schools spread across 15 Indian cities – New Delhi,
Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Goa, Shillong, Gangtok, Lucknow, Kozhikode, Chandigarh,
Ludhiana, Bhubaneswar, Akola, Pune and Indore – taking part in the lengthy
tournament. The best ones were chosen during the matches, and of the thirty
chosen by local instructors sixteen qualified for a week in Milan at the Centro
Sportivo Giacinto Facchetti and to participate in the Inter Friendship Cup.
Inter Academy’s head coach Marco Monti was the one to choose them during the trials in Kolkata. A week was needed to get familiar with them and follow them, using the training methodology of the Nerazzurri’s youth system. In Kolkata they got just a taste of what awaits them in Milan: training, exercises, lessons in team spirit, nutrition and athletic preparation.