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Uttam Rai who has been hailed as one of the future stars of Indian football, has been selected to train at the Colorado Rush Football Academy, USA. This will be his second spell in the US after he had trained for almost 3 years at the IMG academy in Bradenton, Florida.
Coca-Cola, along with Libero Sports management group, are facilitating his training stint at the academy.
“It’s great to see people like Uttam who are identified as part of this programme, are now moving on to a global platform, where he’ll be trained at Colorado Rush. That will be an interesting experience for him, as well as for us. As we are expanding this programme, we would like to see more and more kids take part in sports and especially get into the international arena,” said Atul Singh, President and CEO, Coca-Cola India and South West Asia.
Uttam was discovered in 2009 at the Coca-Cola Mir Iqbal Hussain Trophy (MIHT), where he represented Delhi.
“I’m very happy to be here. When I played in the MIHT, I enjoyed it. We played against Punjab and Uttar Pradhesh, and I scored a goal against Punjab. In the last three years, I have played for India at U-14 and U-16 level. So I thank all my coaches and Mr. Colin Toal for making me a better player. Recently I played for India under-16 AFC tournament, and we played China, Syria and Uzbekistan. After that the coach told me that Colorado Rush is a good academy to play in, and I’m looking forward to it. I thank Coca-Cola for helping me with this,” said the youngster.
Thereafter he was among the select few U-16 boys sponsored by IMG-Reliance to train at the IMG Academy, Florida for the last two years or so. Rai was also part of the India U-16 squad that travelled to Iran for the AFC U-16 Asian Cup, where they played the likes of China, Uzbekistan and Syria in the group stages.
“It’s a new challenge. So I hope that I can be a better player. The IMG academy was very good, but I’m hoping that Colorado Rush will be much better,” said Rai.
Sukhvinder Singh, Managing Director, Libero Sports, is of the opinion that an opportunity for a youngster like Uttam could do wonders for his talent as the technical expertise in the 168th ranked nation isn’t up to the mark.
“Let’s be honest. With the kind of technical expertise available in India with regards to football, it still has a long way to go compared to what is available in other parts of the world. While I do want to see players like Uttam go out and do well for India, but sometime or the other whatever works in terms of making him a better player must be taken into account,” explained the former All India Football Federation (AIFF) marketing head.
“Uttam after breaking into the youth national team set-up, he has actually trained at Bradenton and he’s pretty much acclimatized to the ways of US football. So why not give him a chance to go out at a higher level to enhance his skills, rather than sending him anywhere we believe is the Mecca of football. So this is an effort, along with his family, to decide what is best for him next. And along with our partners we believe, that after his time at Bradenton, Colorado Rush is the best place for his next step,” he explained further.
Tim Schulz, CEO, Rush Soccer, believes that should Uttam have a strong desire to make it big, there are chances of him realising this dream if he shows dedication and puts in the right amount of hard work. He also went on to share the plan for Uttam in the coming six months.
“In the first couple of weeks we (will) make him feel comfortable and part of the team, get him acclimatized. Once that process is done, we get him to understand the system, and understand the way things are done there (USA). On the field we want to check his confidence, so that he is playing at his optimum. Objectives, we want him to be looked at by 1200 colleges here in the US and the chance that he would get a scholarship,” he mentioned.
“The school will step up to get his visa and his application. If he’s really fortunate and one of those few players that has dreams, he will sign a professional contract. Many things have to fall in place though. The parents have to be involved, the group from India has to be involved and he certainly has to have that desire. So in that 6 months process, the comfort level, a college possibility and certainly a professional possibility. The gap between a player from India and the MLS is big, but we are searching for players willing to make that sacrifice to close that gap,” he added.
On being asked what traits does Rai plans on improving, he said that he’d like to work on his ability with his weaker foot.
“I want to improve my left foot, because as a striker I want to be able to use both feet while shooting,” he remarked.
Uttam is set to train at the academy for the next 6 months, with Coca-Cola lending their support throughout this period.
Source: goal.com
