The Hindu : Sport / Football : Soccer stars inter-school meet from December 13

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Soccer stars inter-school meet from December 13

NEW DELHI: Over 1000 schools from 15 cities will take part in the fourth edition of Arsenal Tata Tea Soccer Stars tournament which kicks off in Mumbai on December 13.

Addressing newspersons here on Tuesday, Arsenal's Paul Shipwright expressed the hope that this joint initiative would go a long way in creating a pool of talent .

Each of the 15 centres will hold a two-day event to ascertain a six-player champion team after 30-minute matches. The champion teams will then play for the National title at Shillong.

At the end of the championship in April, 30 players will be selected and trained at Kolkata by Arsenal coaches. Thereafter, 16 chosen players will form the Indian team for the Arsenal International Soccer Festival in London. Last year, the Indian team reached the semifinal.

Shipwright said, “The selected boys will be treated like professional footballers in London. They'll get opportunity to interact with young talents from around the world. I've been associated with this initiative from its inception (three years ago) and let me assure you that the selected Indian boys have proved to be perfect ambassadors for the country.”

Sushant Dash, of the Tata Group, said, “In the first year, we started with eight cities. This time, we have added newer cities like Varanasi, Akola, Ludhiana, Indore and Gangtok.”

Competitions will be held in Mumbai, Akola, Bhuvaneshwar, Indore, New Delhi, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Varanasi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Goa, Gangtok and Shillong.

Godara, Kalaan shine

Manupal Godara (5) and Angad Kalaan (4) powered Jaipur Polo Company to a 9 goals to 4 1/2 victory over Gauchos in the league match of the Manjeet Bhullar Cavalry Gold Cup 8-goal polo tournament at the Army Equestrian Centre, Delhi Cantonment, on Wednesday.

Akhil Sirohi (2), Sameer Chaudhary scored for Gauchos which had started with a 1 1/2 goal handicap advantage.

In the semifinals, Jaipur Polo Company will meet Cavalry-USPA while Sahgal-Jidnal will be challenged by Gauchos.

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