Five Sikkim lads selected for AIFF Bangalore FA, join academy today PURAN TAMANG

NAMCHI, 06 Nov: Five under-14 football players of Namchi Sports Hostel have been selected to join All India Football Federation (AIFF) Bangalore Football Academy.
Pratap Tamang of Salghari, South Sikkim, Anil Limboo of Heegaon, West Sikkim, Namgyal Bhutia of Chumbung, West Sikkim, Biswa Kr Darjee of Gyalshing, West Sikkim and Avinash Sharma of Gangtok, East Sikkim left for Bangalore on 04 November and will be joining the academy on 07 November, Thursday.
It may be recalled that Namchi Sports Hostel had won the U-12 & U- 13 All India Football Federation Football Festival organized by the AIFF at Kalyani, West Bengal on 18-24 November 2012. Junior football talents of the Namchi hostel secured 55 points followed by Delhi with 50 points and Maharashtra with 45 points.
Namchi Sports Hostel represented Sikkim in this event where budding football talents from 25 states participated. The Sikkim boys not only won the champion’s trophy but also impressed the organisers with their outstanding performance. Selectors and organisers along with the Chief Coach of Indian Football team and Technical Director AIFF were all praise for the state’s contingent.
The AIFF selectors chose 15 players from the team for the AIFF Academy out of which 8 made it to the final list. Apart from the five U-13 players selected, three U-12 players Surag Chettri, Smiel Diyali and Ritik Rai joined the AIFF U-12 Goa Academy.
With this, Sikkim has set a record of providing the highest number of players from a state to a national academy. The 8 Sikkim players are among the total of 52 players who will be nurtured further in the academy.
Joint Director (SYS) Kamal Chettri said, “We are proud of their performance and for their selection in the AIFF Bangalore Academy”. Congratulating all the boys, he said that this is the platform from where they can realize their dream of becoming the best players of the country and the world. This, he said would be possible only with hard work and discipline during training.
Mr. Chettri informed that Namchi Sports Hostel was established by the State Government in 1999 to nurture raw football talents selected under the ‘Search for more Bhaichungs’ scheme. The products of this hostel have already set an example at the national and international level. Nirmal Chettri, Sanju Pradhan, Nim Dorjee Tamang, Asish Pradhan and Uttam Rai are some of the names that have made it big and there are many other players who are playing for the best clubs and academies of the country.  The establishment of NSH as directed by the Chief Minister Pawan Chamling to “Search for More Bhaichungs" has started bearing fruit and is providing opportunities to young talents from different corners of Sikkim.
NSH coach, Suren Chettri who has trained the boys also congratulated them and thanked Sikkim Football Association for giving NSH boys a golden opportunity to showcase their talent at the national level event. He also thanked United Sikkim FC for sponsoring the boys in the event. “With such collective effort our team came out on top in the event and 8 of our boys got selected”, he said.
“We are leading in the country in scouting for budding young talents in football and if our boys get more facilities at this level, the day is not far when Sikkim boys will dominate all the football grounds of our country”, the coach added.