Larsing Ming Sawian during the seminar on Wednesday. Telegraph picture

Guwahati, March 22: Shillong Lajong FC has set its sights on producing the maximum number of quality footballers from the Northeast under its flagship youth development programme to man the ranks in the Indian side in the next decade.

This was the resolution the region’s only I-League club’s general secretary Larsing Ming Sawian mentioned during a seminar on Football in Northeast and Shillong Lajong FC as part of the Sports Journalists Federation of India’s 36th annual convention, hosted by the Assam Sports Journalists Association, here last evening.

Sawian, popularly known as Ming, said if Talimeren Ao could be the first captain of India, post-Independence, there was invariably no dearth of talent in the region and particularly in Nagaland.

Quoting Fifa president Sepp Blatter’s branding of India as the “sleeping giant” in world football, Ming termed Nagaland as the “sleeping giant” of India.

“Our endeavour is to tap talent from every corner of the region. So far we have been successful in finding some very talented kids whom we are grooming in our academy and of them, at least a quartet have even been spotted by none other than Bayern Munich for grooming,” he said.

The club has so far enrolled youngsters from seven of the eight states in the region, Tripura being the only exception. “Probably, we are lagging behind in our talent scouting in the state. It will be continuous endeavour to find players from Tripura, too,” Ming said.

The club has got a shot in the arm in its endeavours with Dubai-based multinational company Anglian Holdings investing on a 25-per cent stake.

On the I-League, Ming said: “As far as our strategy is concerned, we propose to consolidate our position in the league by 2013-14. We don’t want to be the champions but work towards producing as many quality footballers as possible.”

The outfit, which enjoys the third highest fan base in the country after Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, is placed 10th with 27 points from 20 matches in the current season.

On the flagging interest for football among Indian spectators, Ming felt it was because of a lack of professional attitude in the organisers. “Not a single tournament in our country, even the I-League or the Federation Cup, is organised professionally. Neither is there enough infrastructure in our country to develop football,” he said.