I-League: Minerva Punjab FC rope in Abhinav Bindra as mentor

Punjab, Dec 26: Minerva Punjab Football Club, the new entrant in the forthcoming I-League wants to set a buzz in Indian football.

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Accordingly, they have roped in Olympic gold medalist and legendary Indian shooter Abhinav Bindra as their mentor.

Minerva FC will kick start their I-League campaign from 8th January. They will play against another new entrant in the II-League Chennai City FC.

Minerva FC chief Ranjit Bajaj, speaking over the phone from Chandigarh said: “I have a good relationship with Bindra. I have seen his devotion in the training long before Bejing Olympics where he earned the coveted gold.

"I know how Abhinav can motivate any other player as he is the master in this job. That is the reason I had invited him to join our team as the mentor.

"He will conduct motivating classes at least twice or thrice a month with our team's footballers. It has already happened once."

Along with Bindra, Minerva have also made a tie-up with Bindra's high-performance training centre in Chandigarh where the team's footballers will keep their fitness upgraded.

During the footballers' training session in the high-performance training centre Bindra was also there and took a half-an-hour class of the players.

The team's coach Surinder Singh lauded Bindra speaking over the phone. He said: “Abhinav took our class for only half-an-hour, trying to teach the footballers that how to revive the focus even at a time when they are trailing.

"The footballers were amazed to have gone through Bindra's method of convincing. I hope this season the footballers will have a much better show in the elite I-League than their performance in the second division I-League last season."

OneIndia News