News and pics: Rons Bantwal
Daijiworld Media Network- Mumbai
Mumbai, July 12: The Mumbai leg of the inaugural edition of Umbro’s 5-a-side football tournament, 'Umbro Cup' concluded on July 6.
The Umbro Cup, launched this year, is concurrent to Umbro’s global commitment towards the development of football and nurturing talent at the grassroots level. The tourney held at the renowned Cooperage Football Ground witnessed 664 players competing across 5 categories, namely, under-12, under-14, under-16, open and corporate categories.
The winners of the under-16 category, St Theresea's School received the coveted Umbro Cup from Godfrey Pereira, former Indian footballer and chief guest along with Ajay Chablani, business head, Planet Sports.
Speaking on the occasion, Godfrey Pereira said, "There is no dearth of football talent in India. What Indian football needs today is unearthing of this talent. The Umbro Cup is a step in the right direction as it provides a platform for young footballers to showcase their talent. I am delighted to see so many young footballers play with so much skill and passion. I wish the kids the very best. I do hope that one day we will qualify for the World Cup."
"At Umbro, whatever we do, we do it with our heart and soul and we will continue to support football at the grassroots level in India. We aim to make the Umbro Cup bigger in the forthcoming years and enable more and more young footballers to showcase their talent. We hope to see kids from the Umbro Cup go on to represent the country," said Ajay Chablani.