Minerva Academy Football Club's owner Ranjit Bajaj elated with Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar 2020 recommendation

New Delhi, June 22: Minerva Academy Football Club based out of Mohali, Punjab has been recommended for the prestigious Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar 2020 under the category Identification and Nurturing of Budding Talent by Government of Punjab, Government of Haryana and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

The award recognises contribution by private entities into sports and provides encouragement to sports through Corporate Social Responsibility. It also takes into account the employment entities given to sportspersons and their sports welfare measures apart from the nurturing of young talent.

Previously, JSW Sports from Indian football arena won the award in 2018 whereas Go Sports foundation was commemorated with the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar under the category of "Identification and nurturing of budding/young talent last year".

Minerva Academy Football Club is owned and founded by Mr Ranjit Bajaj who himself represented India at the U-19 level in the Asian School games. He has played in the most prestigious football tournaments in the country including the Santosh Trophy and Durand Cup, as well as, various Junior Nationals. The Academy houses more than 160 trainees across U-9 to U-18 age groups year-round.

The trainees are identified and nurtured after extensive all India open trials are being inducted into the football training program with full scholarships.

The Minerva Residential Football Academy is known as one of the best in the country and is a direct feeder academy for national teams of all age groups. The Academy has supplied more than 49 individual players and 172 selections for various age group India teams in the last five years.

Within four short years, Minerva FC rose from a semi-professional football club to one of the best professional clubs of India, having an Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian ranking of 102 behind only Bengaluru FC, Mohun Bagan and Chennaiyin FC from India.

Mr Ranjit Bajaj told MyKhel in a telephonic conversation, "I, in fact, everyone at Minerva feel very honoured that we have been nominated for such a prestigious award. The nomination itself stands as a testament to all the hard work put in over the years towards the development of football. We are delighted that our efforts have not gone unnoticed. It's a combined effort of the Minerva family - from the groundsmen to the coaches, support staff to the various age category players themselves."

Earlier in a live webinar session, Mr Bajaj, while tracing his and the academy's journey, said, "I was always into football. I had played for Chandigarh and featured in tournaments like the Durand Cup, Santosh Trophy, and even took part in the Asian School Games. Back then I had never even dreamt of owning and managing a football team.

"We established the Minerva Football Club in 2011 as an amateur six-a-side football club. In 2015, we established our 11-a-side team. We went on to win the I-League in 2017-18. One of the most significant moments from our journey remains the game against Mohun Bagan in Kolkata. It was an away game and there were over 60,000 people in the stadium. The boys were nervous so I got them huddled up. To inspire them I drew some blood from my hand and smeared it on their jerseys. I reminded them that they were gladiators, not footballers. Within the first 15 minutes of the game, we were up by 2 goals and from then on there was no stopping us. My proudest moment was when Jeakson Singh, who was once a member of Minerva, scored India's first-ever Fifa World Cup goal."

"After grooming several players for our national team, I've set myself a target of 14 years to produce India's World Cup team for 2034. For my World Cup Batch of 2034, I am scouting footballers from the age of 6 to 9. I believe everything looks impossible till you do it and the first step is to dream it," he added further.

"The next target is getting India to the World Cup in 2034. it's a personal project aimed at scouting at very young ages of 6-7-8 and nurturing them to make them into professionals that will eventually go on to play for India. Nobody in the country has scouted at this age group because it's a huge cost to develop them for 10+ years. We might also re-enter the I-League through the 2nd division, gradually making out way up to the senior league," he claimed.

The last date for applications for the Award is 22nd June 2020. A special committee shall be set up to take a decision on the winners of the prestigious national award under various categories. Decisions are likely to be announced within 2-3 weeks after the last date of nominations.

Vishal Sharma is a Delhi based sports journalist. An enthusiast who loves to travel and explore things around. He analysis sports and observe in-depth manner. He is a news and features writer on several online publications. His life is all around sports. Some of his hobbies are blogging, singing, research, travelling and meet geeks. He is a Wikipedian too.