Unleashing a pool of football talent

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In all, 120 students of Sports and Education Promotion Trust (SEPT) will pass out in a ceremony to be held at Kozhikode today.

For these students it will be the culmination of seven years of diligent training and professional coaching in football.

The passing-out of the batch, which started in 2004, will be a landmark in the history of SEPT, which was started by six football lovers. Their aim was to impart professional training to children from grassroots level onwards.

In the seven years of training, the trust has already produced three international players, Hanan Javed, Lazim Ali and Anis, who have played in U-13 national side. Among them, Hanan Javed and Anis are now undergoing training at the IMG Academy in Florida.

“Our main aim is grassroots development of the players. Seven years ago, when we started the trust, the youth development in Kerala was in shambles.

Even in the midst of lack of facilities, we were able to produce several national and international players within seven years of our inception. The current batch’s average age is 15 years and I am sure there will be talents who can make the nation proud,” says Arun K Nanu, chairman of SEPT.

The SEPT has 41 centres across the State and is one of the major organisations in giving training in youth development. “We select the best students from these units and send them for various foreign tours.

The team has already gone to Scandinavian countries and has won several tournaments including Coca-Cola Cup held in Finland. We have also gone to Malaysia as part of our training programme,” says Arun.

SEPT is also bringing in foreign coaches every six months for training “We believe that the Indian coaches must be given training in youth development. So we focus on coaches and players simultaneously,” he says.

“If there were no generous sponsorship from football loving people and companies, we would have not been able to provide most of the facilities,” he says.