At Essar, we have always supported sports with a desire to groom young talent. In our pursuit of nurturing young talent at the grassroot, Essar co-sponsored India’s largest annual soccer talent hunt which is being organised in South Mumbai, wherein 6,500 children are participating. The tournament is an initiative of Mr. Milind Deora, Former Member of Parliament and in association with Queen Park Rangers (QPR), a UK-based English Premier League team based out of London.
The South Mumbai Junior Soccer Challenger is one of India’s longest running and largest community football events. The objective of the South Mumbai Junior Soccer Challenger is to serve as a platform for sports promotion and development at the grassroots level amongst the children of the community. A large majority of the participants are children from Municipal Schools and Government aided schools (primarily children from underprivileged backgrounds).
The tournament is in its 13th year and has children participate in the age group of 6 years to 16 years, both girls and boys. From the 6500 participants, 75% children hail from BMC-run Government schools and 25% from private and government-aided schools. The tournament is open for all schools in South Mumbai – Municipal, Government-aided, and Private Schools – and is being held from 25th November 2023 to 21st January 2024.
Every participant is provided with a jersey, shorts, stockings and a pair of football boots. The bonus arising out of this talent hunt is that 2 boys and 2 girls will be selected for an ‘all expenses paid trip’ for training with the London-based football club, QPR.
Mrs Smiti Kanodia, Mstr Aayush Kanodia and Dominic Dsouza represented Essar Foundation at the event. Mstr Aayush Kanodia exhibited his footballing skills by playing for two team and even assisted in one of the goals.