A football academy held its first sporting event in post-Covid times under a shifting gloomy winter sky. It was a structured training programme at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan for under-17 children, in collaboration with Soccer City, Germany, an educational facility for football. Andreas Seipel, CEO of Soccer City, was in town to train the kids.The football coaching centre, named German Football Academy (GFA), was founded in 2017 and now grooms no less than 300 students in its three branches — at Bhavan’s in Salt Lake, in Minto Park and in Tollygunge.The academy is known for holding special sessions every quarter with foreign coaches. Currently GFA has collaborations with German entities like Soccer City, Brain Soccer and Athlete Lab and also Viking Club of Norway. Coaches from first division Bundesliga (German league) sides, FC Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund have previously come to contribute to its programmes.Ranadeep Mukherjee, one of the partners of GFA, is proud of the children, who, in spite of the academic pressure of middle and high school, are devoting time to the game. "Our goal is to provide a structured programme with a safe training environment. Eighty per cent of our students come for recreation. The rest that are serious about a career are helped with trials with clubs. Thanks to our tie-up with Soccer City, we can also send them for longer training schedules of one or two months to Germany. We encourage our students to continue football alongside education. That's why we are also opening a football school in Wayanad, Kerala,” he said.Soccer City has a learning and development programme, in which the students who sign up are sent to Europe to study as well as train under experienced coaches. It has previously produced a player for Spain’s first division club, Atletico Madrid.Around 70 students from all over the city had signed up for the special training session with Soccer City.The kids were divided into two groups based on their age. The younger batch was dealt with liberally regarding their approach, while the older group was tested to the limits through dribbling, tackling, jockeying and close ball-control situations.Seipel avoided talking much with the kids. He rather stressed on allowing them to play. “Kids do not love too much talking. What is important is their love for the game,” he said, with a smile.Other than supervising the training session of the children, Seipel spoke at length with the GFA staff, stressing on the need to train the academy's coaches before launching any sort of joint venture.He emphasised on the importance of ample warm-up and stretching even before a casual drill to avoid injuries. His approach was no surprise given that he had to hang up his boots at the young age of 26 due to a knee injury. Coaching since an early age of 16, the German holds the record for the youngest UEFA recognized 'A' license coach in his time.In nearly 44 years of coaching, he said he had coached in multiple clubs in Germany, including in the fourth division of the Bundesliga where he faced Thomas Brdaric, currently the head coach of Indian Super League team Chennaiyin FC.Most of the parents, spoken to by The Telegraph Salt Lake, said that their children were not mere seasonal football fans, but have “love and passion for the game”. The kids hail mostly from middle and upper middle classes, with parents who acknowledge the need for optimum physical as well as mental health.From the pool of students who train at GFA, a girl attended the special workshop from a total of 20 to 30 girls who train under the GFA. “Ilina inherited her passion for the sport from me. I play football in the weekends in AE Park. Both of us are fans of Arsenal in the English Premier League and stay up late to catch their games live,” said Vivek Jaiswal, 10-year-old Ilina's father. “Women have never been given the right opportunities and exposure to prove their mettle. We will support her if she decides to continue with football,” mother Smita said.Ilina enjoyed the training sessions so much that she was heard requesting the German coach to “stay in India forever” and train them. An overwhelmed Seipel replied that his daughter played football back in Germany and that he had to return to his family.
