{"id":3433,"date":"2016-04-20T15:13:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-20T15:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/aiff-academy-cadets-look-forward-to-fc\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T22:28:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T16:58:44","slug":"aiff-academy-cadets-look-forward-to-fc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/aiff-academy-cadets-look-forward-to-fc\/","title":{"rendered":"AIFF Academy cadets look forward to FC Metz stint"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nJoseph Solomon<\/b>
AIFF Media Team<\/b><\/p>\n

If even a month ago one would have told AIFF Academy cadets Anirudh Thapa, Prosenjit Chakraborty and Jerry Lalrinzualathat they would train at a Club which has produced the likes of Arsenal legend Robert Pires, Bayern Munich\u2019s Frank Ribery, Manchester United forward Louis Saha, Roma\u2019s current Midfielder Miralem Pjanic, Emmanuel Adebayor amongst others, they would have laughed on your face.<\/p>\n

On April 20, 2016 the complexion on the face of the trio, upon acknowledging the gravity of the fact was more or less energetic and somewhat nervous.<\/p>\n

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\nThe trio graduating through the ranks of All India Football Federation\u2019s Youth Development Programme whilst being part of the age-group National Teams, are being sent by the AIFF for training at French Club side FC Metz for nine months, starting this April.<\/p>\n

They would be training with the U-21 Club side and the second Team and playing in a series of Friendly matches. The Club would be monitoring them closely and may extend the training stint for another season if any of the Players impress them.<\/p>\n

Thapa, Chakraborty and Jerry were part of the Indian squad which had won the AFC U-16 SAFF Championship and finished runners-up in the SAFF U-19 Championship, both held in Nepal. They also played a key role in helping AIFF U-19 emerge victorious in the U-19 I-League and finished runners-up to TFA in the IFA Shield. They have also represented India in the U-16 AFC Qualifiers in Kuwait and the ACT U-16.<\/p>\n

Talking exclusively to www.the-aiff.com, the trio, all excited and gaga with brimming smiles, looked confident ahead of the French journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a huge experience for us and we will certainly evolve into better Players by training with one of the top sides in French Football,\u201d said Thapa. \u201cThe experience will just be immense,\u201d he nodded.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thank the AIFF and our Coaches for helping us along the way and all of this is possible only because of their efforts. They helped us evolve in better Players and are still backing us to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

You mention to the trio about the likes of Robert Pires coming from the FC Metz Academy and Thapa instantly quips: \u201cIt is a big motivation for us to be training on the same field as Robert Pires. At the same time it is a huge honour for all of us to be associated with a Club which had produced the likes of Pires, Louis Saha, Ribery, Pjanic, Adabeyor amongst others.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

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\n\u201cIt\u2019s hard to believe that we will be training at Metz. It will be an emotional journey for me as my some my Footballing icons are associated with FC Metz\u201d, explained Prosenjit Chakraborty.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Coaches have played an integral role in our upbringing. I would like to thank Gautam-Sir (Gautam Ghosh), (Syed) Pasha-Sir and all the support staff for helping me develop,\u201d Prosenjit maintained.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven Scott-Sir (AIFF\u2019s Technical Director Scott O\u2019Donell) helped us learn the nitty gritties of the game and that has taken us far in our Footballing careers so far,\u201d Jerry, who had scored the winner for India in the U-16 SAFF Finals, quipped.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family has already started praying for me for my successful stint in France. They have told me to keep focused on the task at hand and not lose concentration,\u201d he informed.<\/p>\n

With FC Metz playing in the second division of French Football the stakes for the trio are high. But they are not shying away from it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that it will be a different ball game all together in France. But we are prepared for it,\u201d Thapa assured.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Coaches that we have worked with so far are some of the best in the business and we have confidence in our abilities that we will perform,\u201d he added. \u201cWe have to,\u201d he reiterated.<\/p>\n

When you mention about the alien weather, the food the culture, the trio, in chorus answered back: \u201cThat\u2019s Football. We are ready to fight. Thank you AIFF for putting us there. We will give our Best.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joseph SolomonAIFF Media Team If even a month ago one would have told AIFF Academy cadets Anirudh Thapa, Prosenjit Chakraborty and Jerry Lalrinzualathat they would train at a Club which has produced the likes of Arsenal legend Robert Pires, Bayern Munich\u2019s Frank Ribery, Manchester United forward Louis Saha, Roma\u2019s current Midfielder Miralem Pjanic, Emmanuel Adebayor amongst others, they would have laughed on your face. On April 20, 2016 the complexion on the face of the trio, upon acknowledging the gravity of the fact was more or less energetic and somewhat nervous. The trio graduating through the ranks of All India <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[571,169,166],"class_list":["post-3433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-update","tag-aiff","tag-football","tag-sports","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3433"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71915,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3433\/revisions\/71915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}