Indian U-17 keeper Dheeraj Singh set for trials at Scottish club Motherwell

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New Delhi, Nov 27: The recently concluded Under 17 World Cup in India has given us a lot of reasons for joy. Many young footballers have already caught our eye with their dazzling performance and out of all those surely the most standout consistent performer was 16-year-old keeper, Dheeraj Singh Moirangthem from Manipur.

India failed to win a single point over the whole course of the tournament, but it was the young goalkeeper who made the headlines in every match for his excellent display.

Thanks to his splendid job, the 16-year-old now has gotten the chance to showcase his talent in a trail in Europe with Scottish Premiership side Motherwell FC.

The Scottish side have reportedly asked Dheeraj to attend trials for a month. Dheeraj would train with the senior team and if he impresses his coaches at Motherwell, he would be offered a long-term contract.

However, Dheeraj is contracted to the AIFF till December 31, 2017, and will represent the developmental Indian Arrows squad that will compete in the I-League. A report suggests Dheeraj will only go for the trial at the end of the I-League.

"I am feeling more confident than ever before about moving abroad. After the performance in the U-17 World Cup, my confidence is on a high. I feel this is the right move for me," Dheeraj told TOI.

"It will be good or me if I move abroad. My next aim is to break into the senior national team. Constantine has been doing an impressive job and I really want to be a part," said Dheeraj.

Although, a big problem lies in the procedure as the United Kingdom has strict rules for footballers to qualify for a work permit.

As per UK footballing rules, any player who is outside of Europe should feature in at least 75% of his country's competitive international games over the last two years also the country, on average over those two years, should have been in the top 70 of the Fifa rankings.

With these conditions, Dheeraj wouldn't qualify on both counts but it will be interesting to see if any exception can be made out of this.