Dempo SC launches residential football academy in Goa

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Panaji, Nov 25: Former I League side Dempo SC have put their first step forward in developing Indian football as the Goanese side on Thursday launched their first residential football academy at Ella in Old Goa with a phase-I facility.

The FIFA standard playing academy which will have full-size grass pitch, shooting wall, pavilion and temporary changing rooms, offices, washrooms and classrooms were inaugurated in the presence of club president Shrinivas Dempo, India U-17 World Cup coach Luis Norton de Matos and captain Amarjit Singh.

“It is a very special day in the history of Dempo Sports Club. It is a beginning of a dream. The dream will be realized when our boys do extremely well in professional football," stated Srinivas Dempo.

“We had opportunities on one side and challenges on the other. It’s at that time the management decided to concentrate on grassroots and give the boys an avenue to pursue their dreams of becoming professional footballers. With this in mind, we decided to create a world-class residential football academy.”

The academy work started from early this year, from June 4 and currently, they have enrolled 24 names into their maiden batch who are born in 2004 and 2005 and was selected during a 10-day camp involving 67 boys. The young boys have already been tied down with contracts and they are currently attending school at Fr. Agnel High School, Pilar with full scholarships facilities.

They also mentioned that they are already planning to extend their facilities and working on to land their second phase of the Academy from in January next year which will accommodate 96 players.

“The next phase is to create a residential boarding facility for the boys who are currently residing in a block of flats,” said Dempo.

The Three times I League winners and one time Federation winners currently do not participate in any of the national leagues after opting out in protest against the All India Football Federation’s restricting plans, but, their such emerging step will surely take the Goa and Indian football forward with a hope of a new horizon.