12 football players leave for training in Germany

Chandigarh, May 20 (UNI) Twelve players of the state-run Chandigarh Football Academy (CFA) will leave for Germany tomorrow for a 15-day training at Sportschule Egidius Braun in Leipzig from May 24 to June 9.

Chandigarh Sports Director and Additional Deputy Commissioner Inderjit Singh Sandhu said here today that two officials, former international and Indian captain Harjinder Singh and Joint Director Sports, Chandigarh Administrator Dr J P S Sidhu would accompany the trainees, as coach and head of the delegation, respectively.

Sandhu disclosed that another batch of 12 players would go to Germany for advance scientific training from November 18 to December 2.

The first batch will consist of Ramanjot Singh, Sachin Balwal, Sumeet Passi, Rajinder, Chinkash Tewari, Maninder Singh, Baljinder Singh, Robin Singh, Samuel, Aakashdeep Singh, Gagandeep Singh and Rajbir Singh. They boys are with the CFA since 2004.

Deepak Devrani and Bikramjit were selected for the training in Germany in the first batch. However, due to some technical problems (validity of their passports was not more than six months as required for obtaining visa). They will, however, be accommodated in the second batch.

Coach Harjinder Singh was happy that the boys would be exposed to specialized 15-day training in Germany. "The move of the Chandigarh Administration will certainly benefit the players. The boys will gain good experience under trained tutors in honing their skills and improvement in physical standards," he said.

It may be recalled that Chandigarh Football Academy and Sportschule Egidius Braun Leipzig of Germany had signed an agreement last year to provide training to the CFA players.

Andre Kuhn, Director of Sportschule and S K Sandhu, Secretary Sports, UT had penned the agreement on behalf of the Egidius Braun Sportschule, Leipzig and the Chandigarh administraion respectively.

Adviser to the Chandigarh Administrator, Lalit Sharma has accorded sanction of Rs 18 lakh for the training in Germany.

UNI