Nicolai selects four boys from AIFF's Scouting initiative
Nicolai who was present to watch the selected boys play for a combined Team for AIFF U-19 Academy Team in Goa told www.the-aiff.com that the selected “boys deserve another trial with my Team.”
"There is no guarantee that these boys would eventually make it to the World Cup squad but they certainly deserve the chance for another trial with my Team. The four boys would join my Camp after we come back from our back to back Tournaments in Brazil and Russia,” the German coach informed.
“I myself have been actively involved in many scouting ventures since taking over but from my experience, I can say that this was one of the better ones from all which I have attended. The level of Football which I say was really impressive and we have scouted four.”
Keeping an eye to strengthening the U-17 World Cup squad, AIFF had taken up the initiative of asking all 55 participating Teams in the U-16 League to send their three best Players for the trials, which were conducted in three phases in Kalyani, New Delhi and Goa. Overall, 140 boys appeared in the trials in the three locations from which eleven were called for the final session and eventually four were selected by Nicolai Adam.
Nicolai felt the idea is to give youth Players “more opportunity to play.”
"It was a novel idea from AIFF to invite the four best Players from the U-16 Clubs. In Youth Football you just have to give the boys the opportunity to play and that’s how you scout Players. So we decided on an extra round of scouting and it has paid dividends.”
Nicolai also heaped huge praise on Abhishek Yadav. "If I look back on my tenure so far, I would say one of the most important decisions which I have taken so far is to get Abhishek (Yadav) on board."
“Besides his pro-active involvement in scouting and expanding the network, he has been doing a lot for the Team off the field. I am extremely happy that we have him. His work ethics are superb and that he understands the game makes it all the easier for all of us."
Image: AIFF Media
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