Courtesy: News Today




Chennai lad leads India in Futsal World Cup

Chennai: With Futsal slowly gaining popularity in Chennai, more youngsters are taking to the sport with an aim to make it big.

Bharath Raj S, a resident of KK Nagar and class XI student of Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan, captained the India Under-17 Futsal team which got a wild card entry into the Futsal World Cup held in June this year in Paraguay.

Like most youngsters, Bharath was initially hooked to cricket but took a liking to football when in his sixth grade. Due to his dribbling skills, Bharath started pursuing Futsal at Tiki Taka in Kilpauk which was one of the first rooftop (Futsal) arenas in Chennai.

Bharath got a chance to represent Tamilnadu in the National Under-17 Futsal tournament after being trained by his coach Sivaji and Shiyam Sundar. Having pumped in seven goals during the tournament, Bharath was awarded the player of the tournament award, even though Tamilnadu ended up as the runner-up to Telangana.

"I won the player of the tournament prize and it boosted my confidence level. After this, when I heard that I would be captaining India in the World Cup, it was surreal. It was an awesome experience competing with players from all over the world," said Bharath.

Having only trained with his teammates for two days, India, which was in Group A with Catalonia, Kazhaksthan and host nation Paraguay, could not advance to the next round.

"Though we were not able to qualify for the next round, we gave it our best. I wish I could play more such tournaments in the future and make India proud," said Bharath.

Though ranked 152 in the world, experts say that with better infrastructure, India can produce more world class players. "There are more and more Futsal arenas coming up in Chennai. In the last year alone, around four arenas have come up in Chennai. With better infrastructure we can produce better players and grassroots level training can be provided," said Hemnath, a coach at an academy in the city.

Bharath's father A K Selvakumar is a businessman and mother Dharani Bai is a houswife. His sister S Nandhika is studying class VIII at PSBB School.

Bharath Raj resides at 349 B, 27th Street, Sixth Sector, K K Nagar. He can be reached at 99410 16662.


Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com