Thirty-four goalkeeping talents from the Under-13, Under-15, and Under-18 categories, including two female goalkeepers, who have been selected for the academy, will be mentored by top goalkeeping stars of yesteryears Tanumoy Basu, Atanu Bhattacharya, Debashish Mukherjee and Sangram Mukherjee.
The hands-on coaching would be provided by Utpal Haldar, Kamal Biswas and Kalyan Mitra.
At the launch event, AIFF Senior Vice-President and IFA Chairman Subrata Dutta said, “When I was the Secretary of the IFA, I had similar dreams. It feels good to see that the current IFA Secretary has given shape to those dreams.”
Speaking on the occasion, IFA Secretary Joydeep Mukherjee cautioned the trainees that nothing was a given for them. Those who would perform well would stay in the Academy and those who didn’t merit a place would be axed.
IFA Vice-President Dr. Partha Sarathi Ganguli was hopeful that with cooperation, coordination and determination, the academy would be a resounding success.