Children from tribal communities in Kerala kick-off their football dreams with help from sports personalities

The Thirteenth Foundation’s trials draw enthusiastic young aspirants for admission to upcoming, fully-funded academies that will holistically scout and train football talent from tribal-dominated regions of the State

Dhyan likes to stop the goal rather than scoring it like many of his friends, and the Class V student, who idolises goalkeeper Prabhsukhan Singh Gill of the Kerala Blasters, a professional football club based in Kochi, is pretty sure he will make it to his school team by next year.

Young Dhyan is among the 400-odd tribal children who showed up at the SAUPS ground in Wayanad’s Thirunelli for a selection trial on Saturday. The trial marked the maiden project of The Thirteenth Foundation, a charitable trust formed by eminent sports personalities like footballer C.K. Vineeth and hockey player P.R. Sreejesh, and was organised in association with famous Malayalam actor Mammootty’s Care and Share Foundation.

The trial was held for admission to the F13 Football Academy, one of the 70 such academies Mr. Vineeth and the team behind the initiative propose to form across the State for the holistic development of football talent. These academies will serve as sister concerns and scouting units for The Thirteenth Foundation, which proposes to set-up world class sporting infrastructure in Kochi.

“The response has been phenomenal and now we want to conduct similar trials in other tribal-centric areas like Attapady, Kothamangalam and Idukki. We plan to select a Under-16 batch of 60 children who will be given everything from training and football kits to food for free. They will be split into two teams of 30 each and will be trained three days a week. The teams will play matches against each other every month,” Mr. Vineeth said.

The training camp is expected to commence by December 10. Plans are underway provide volleyball training in the land adjoining the ground.

The F13 Academy in Thirunelli is the second academy to be set-up after the one in Kathriroor in Kannur district, where the Under-14 and Under-10 batches are receiving training.

“We have identified five grounds each in Wayanad and Palakkad, around four in Mavelikkara, and one in Thiruvananthapuram, for the proposed academies. Though, ideally, we want to introduce the Under 10, Under 14 and Under 17 batches simultaneously, it depends on the availability of grounds and the turnout for trials,” Mr. Vineeth said.