DUBAI, UAE
Five to six promising women footballers from Goa will get a chance to play and train with UAE-based Pioneer Sports Academy (PSA), officials of the academy said.
The selection trials to shortlist the women footballers will take place in December in two places in Goa – on December 17 in South Goa and the following day in North Goa (Sangolda ground), the South Goa venue is yet to be decided.
The academy was formed in November 2020 by Dubai-based Goan Entrepreneur Lenny Fernandes along with former India International Franky Barreto.
Lenny, who traces his roots to Goa Velha, aims to deliver the best coaching at the academy and help students realise and reach their full potential. He is also very passionate about developing and supporting Indian football and along with Franky, has set the road map for Indian football youngsters in Dubai.
Franky, who played professional football for top clubs in India for 12 years from 1991 to 2003 such as Salgaocar SC, East Bengal, Churchill Bros and Vasco SC, has been based in Dubai for the last 19 years.
At the end of his professional football career in Goa, he was employed with University of Wollongong in Dubai as Manager Student Services for 17 years with Sports being one of the departments he was overseeing.
The academy has been at the forefront in promoting Indian talent ever since its formation with some young age group players getting a chance to attend trials of the Indian age group teams. The academy youth teams participate in the Dubai Sports Council League and Dubai Youth League.
Their mission is to train students from the grassroots level, develop them into quality footballers, and also provide opportunities for deserving players in the form of trials with top clubs of India and also with the national age group team.
Thanks to the sterling efforts of the academy till date four boys Soham (U20), Kridge Gonsalves (U18), Elroy Gomes (U18), Zander Ferao (U16) have gone for trials for the India U20 and U18 teams and one girl, Misha Bhandari for the U17 camp.
PSA’s objective is to support and develop Indian football in whatever way they can, last season they tied up with two Indian clubs who were playing in the Indian Women League (IWL).
“Last season PSA partly sponsored two IWL teams Sivordem Football Club, Goa and Sethu Football Club, Chennai,” said Franky, who is an English FA Level 2 certified coach and the co-founder of the academy which aims to be ‘one of the top academies in the UAE’.
Franky on his part has managed to convince some of his former India national team colleagues to visit the academy in an attempt to encourage the kids at the academy.
Some of the leading lights of Indian football who have visited the academy so far include Savio Madeira, Bibiano Fernandes, Alvito D'Cunha and Venkatesh Shanmugham. The venture has students from ages 6-19 and currently has more than 150 students.
Talking about the Goa selections trials Franky said it’s more of a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme, Lenny will be financially supporting this whole programme, "The plan is to select 5-6 talented girls from Goa or other parts of India and bring them to Dubai to train with our academy girls, this will help our girls to get better playing with these experienced girls. We will be providing the selected girls with residence visa, accommodation, food, football training and allowances.”
The selected Indian women footballers stand a chance to extend their stay in Dubai and work in the UAE.
“We will help them (women footballers selected from the Goa trials) to find a job in Dubai, if they are interested to work, matching their profile, alternatively Lenny owns a couple of companies in Dubai, we may recruit them there too if there is a requirement,” said Franky, who graduated from Damodar College Margao.
As to the further plans of the academy on the women team’s front Franky said they plan to form a women’s team in a bid to give more exposure to the girls at the academy.
“We are in process of forming a girls’ team, and yes once that is achieved, the team will be playing in the women’s tournaments/ league here,” he said.
The academy aims to provide the youth with the necessary training, equipment, and skills to realise their passion and bring out the star in themselves with a couple of Goan coaches and from other parts of India and other nationalities working overtime to polish the rough diamonds.
“All our coaches are either AIFF certified or from the English FA. We have a very talented team of coaches who are very passionate in what they do,” added Franky, who is also the Middle East representative of Association of Indian Football Coaches (AIFC), a body recognised by All India Football Federation.
Besides Franky, the other coaches attached to the academy include Lynton D’Souza, Shahid Badr, Sumosh Kumar, Chinedu Darlington and Razak Devsor.
