The Airtel Rising Stars 2013 season, India’s largest U-16 football talent hunt, will kick off in Delhi from Saturday with 80 of the city’s leading schools vying for the Airtel Cup.
Besides Delhi, the talent hunt will be held in six other cities — Mumbai, Kolkata, Goa, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Guwahati — and will cover around 450 schools in the country.
The opening matches will be played at the Ganga International School Ground in the capital featuring the hosts against Richmond Public School to be followed by a clash between Venkateshwar School, Rohini, and St. Margret School.
The tournament will also be the selection platform for the best three players, who will represent Delhi in the final trials to be held in Goa.
The best goalkeeper from each city will also be picked and put through the process, following which two names will be shortlisted for the final trials.
The 30 players in the final trials will train for five days under coaches of the Manchester United Soccer Schools in Goa and will be tested on parameters like physical attributes, individual skills and their performances in actual matches before 11 of them are chosen to travel to Manchester in the United Kingdom for a week to train alongside the Manchester United U-21 team.