German club aims to take Hill football to new heights

Amitava Banerjee | MP | 11 December 2018 | Darjeeling: A new football team is all set be constituted in the Darjeeling and Kalimpong Hills. The new team, along with 20 budding footballers from the under-12 age group, will be trained by the Eintracht Club, Frankfurt, Germany.

"We have 4 teams from the Hills contesting in the ongoing GTA Chairman's Gold Cup Football Tournament. We will be selecting the best players from these 4 teams and form a new team. The team will be trained by the Eintracht Club," stated Binay Tamang, chairman, Board of Administrators, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration.

Representatives of the Eintracht club are currently in Darjeeling to scout for young talents in the "Darjeeling Football Star- Pahari Footballer Ko Khoj" a joint project of the Darjeeling Police in association with Football Next Foundation.

"The Star-Pahari Footballer Ko Khoj (hunt for star footballers from the Hills) had started a month ago. More than 3,000 budding footballers of the under-12 group took part in

the event. 24 were selected, including 4 as reserve," stated Akhilesh Chaturvedi, Superintendent of Police, Darjeeling.

The 24 selected players will start training in Darjeeling after Christmas. "Around March-April 2019 we will take 20 of the players to Frankfurt, where they will be part of the Eintracht Club's football programme. They will play friendly matches against under-12 teams of Germany, undergo training, get a taste of football infrastructure and will also embark on cultural tours and local sight-seeing," stated Nicolai Adam, head of international sports project of Eintracht. Adam is the former coach of the under-17 team of India.

"The U-12 team will undergo training in Darjeeling as well. There will be coaches to train them here. They will be trained as per the programme of the Eintracht Club," stated Kaushik Maulik of Football Next Foundation.

The senior team that will be constituted after the Gold Cup will also undergo a similar programme. "The senior team will gain international exposure by playing against other teams in Germany. It will be a sort of calibration," added Adam.

Even the girls from the Hills could make it to Germany in future. "Girls' football needs to be developed. We should have a good women's team," stated Adam. "Side-by-side, the GTA will do the needful to develop football infrastructure in the Hills," assured Tamang.