In the early hours of Sunday morning, over 300 players from Jamshedpur FC’s Grassroots Football Schools took to the field at Armoury Ground to participate in a football festival. The festival was conducted to celebrate the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Grassroots Football Day.
The participants were players from the eight football schools started in association with various schools across the city, namely:
- Mount Litera Zee School, Mango
- Kerala Samajam Model School, Golmuri
- RVS Academy, Dimna Road
- DBMS Kadma High School
- Loyola School, CH Area
- DAV Public School, Bistupur
- Hill Top School, Telco
- Carmel Junior College, Sonari
The festival was conducted by Mr. Kundan Chandra, Head of Grassroots - Jamshedpur FC, who was delighted to see the commitment of the kids as well as the parents towards football. He said, “It was an absolute joy to watch so many of our grassroots players come together at one place. I am also thankful to the parents, our grassroots coaches as well as the schools involved who have been showing the high level of enthusiasm.”
Jamshedpur FC & TFA Youth Academy Head Coach, Mr. Carlos Santamarina was one of the members of the technical staff present at the event. He said, “The way the festival has been organized is amazing. Kudos to everyone at Jamshedpur FC and everyone involved on the pitch today.”
The event saw 47 Tata Steel Rural Development Society (TSRDS) coaches in attendance for the Refresher Course along with 24 coaches of the Jamshedpur FC Football Schools working as pitch managers and team leaders during the festival. Some of the parents also volunteered during the festival as they showcased their enthusiasm as the event got carried out.
Ms. Kabita Agarwal, Principal – Mount Litera Zee School, was part of the esteemed guest panel to visit the festival. She said, “To see so many kids coming to play football and showing so much commitment is massive. I hope to see these kids explore themselves and build on their capabilities with the Grassroots Programme.”
For the coaches who concluded their workshop with the festival, she added, “It’s important to have coaches educated regularly and I hope in the near future Jamshedpur will become a big name in football.”
Jamshedpur FC plans to conduct more football festivals in the near future on a periodic basis to engage as many children as possible from across the city of Jamshedpur.
