Dhanbad, March 4: The two-day selection trials of SAIL Football Academy, Bokaro, began today at Mohan Kumar Mangalam Stadium with 96 candidates from different parts of Jharkhand, Bengal, Odisha, Manipur, Mizoram, Kerala, Jammu and Maharashtra are participating in the trails.

The candidates, who are below 16 years of age with minimum height requirement of 5' 7'', have been selected through different regional-level selection trials conducted by the academy in January and February.

Out of these 96 boys, only 22 would be selected for a two-week camp. At the camp, the list will be further brought down to 18. These 18 candidates would then undergo training at SAIL Football Academy, Bokaro for three years.

The selection panel for the two-day trials includes Arup Das of central marketing organisation (CMO), SAIL, Calcutta, Surojit Sarkar, environment management division (EMD) of SAIL Calcutta, Biswajit Das of SAIL, Burnpur, Amitabh Das of SAIL Durgapur, and Subhash Rajak and Ajay Singh of Bokaro Steel Plant. The panellists will be selecting the candidates on the basis of their ball passing skills, shifting skills, stamina, fitness, among others.

The selected candidates will be trained by national-level coaches of SAIL during which they would also be provided with free accommodation, kits and medical facilities.

Subhash Rajak, coach of SAIL Football Academy, Bokaro, said, "The candidates participating the trials are very promising and we will ensure that they have a bright future. "