Webinar will focus on ‘Digital Revolution, Online Business and Entrepreneurhip’
Rasheed Hazari, is Chief Strategist at Dubai Economic Development Authority
Dubai:
The Bearys Chamber of Commerce and Industry, UAE (BCCI) is set to organize a webinar on ‘Digital Revolution, Online Business and Entrepreneurship’ on September 10.
The webinar will be organized with a view of facilitating entrepreneurs and professionals to adapt to the changing trends, a press statement from the organization stated.
Rasheed Hazari, Technical Specialist at the Dubai Economic Development Authority will be the resource person for the webinar. The press statement added that he will highlight the impact of technological advances in digital media on the business environment.
Rashid Hazari, as a Chief Strategist he is responsible for designing Future Economy Strategies, developing and recommending Eco –System Transformation Plans & Policy Initiatives for the Government of Dubai.
He conducts Strategic Future Foresight, analyses Emerging Technologies & Global Mega Trends including the Fourth Industrial revolution & its implications on the local economy.
Rashid has received recognitions from H.H.Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister of UAE, & Ruler of Dubai, as a Creative Govt. Employee (DGEP Category) and for his contributions to Business Excellence initiatives of Dubai Economy.
The BCCI, UAE has been actively involved for three years in bringing together the industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and other professionals through business networking to empower them to carry out their businesses and socially relevant activities, informed President of the Chambers UAE Chapter S M Basheer.
The press release stated that the webinar on Digital Revolution will be a matter of interest to the business community, especially the young entrepreneurs.
source: http://www.english.varthabharati.in / Vartha Bharati / Home> Gulf / by Vartha Bharati / September 05th, 2021
Interestingly, the spouses of Fathima, Hajra, Ayesha, and Faiza are also doctors. Kumhamed Kutty and his wife were also against dowry.
Zaina (third from right) flanked by her doctor family. (Photo | Special Arrangement)
Sometimes fact is stranger than fiction. This is true in the case of Ahamed Kunhamed Kutty and his wife Zaina Ahmed of Nadapuram in Kozhikode district of Kerala.
When Zaina Ahamed gave birth to six daughters, Ahamed and his wife didn’t despair. Rather they were happy. Ahamed was a progressive thinker. He envisioned a life for his daughters in which they would serve society better and be role models for others.
His wish did not take long to turn into reality. All the six daughters of the couple did well in their studies and would go on to be doctors. Wait, we are getting ahead of ourselves.
Four daughters namely, Fathima Ahamed 39, Hajra Ahamed 33, Ayesha Ahamed 30, and Faiza Ahamed are already practicing doctors. Raihana Ahamed 23 is doing her final year MBBS in Chennai while the youngest Ameera Ahamed is in the first year of her MBBS course in Mangalore.
Interestingly, the spouses of Fathima, Hajra, Ayesha, and Faiza, namely, Dr Rishad Rasheed, Dr Ajnas Mohammed Ali, Dr Abdurahman Padiyath Manapat, and Dr Ajas Haroon respectively are also doctors.
Zaina was only 12 years old when she was married off to her cousin Ahamed. At the time, he was running a business in Chennai. After the birth of their first daughter, Ahamed went to Qatar with his wife and daughter where he was employed in a refinery.
Hajra, who did a BDS course while all the others opted for MBBS, recalls the evenings in Qatar when their parents used to infuse them with the importance of doing well in their studies and serving society.
Once they returned from school, there used to be a family gathering when their parents chatted with their daughters about several things, particularly their studies and future.
Ahamed Kunhamed Kutty and his wife Zaina Ahmed
My Uppa liked medicine. When he couldn’t become a doctor he dreamt of making his brother a doctor. But his brother went on to become a teacher and he’s known as Soofi teacher in our place,” Hajra said.
So, naturally, Ahamed wished that one of his daughters would fulfill his dreams. Fathima opted for MBBS and she took to the course like a duck to water. The positive feedback from Fathima inspired her other sisters also to go in for medicine. Behind it, all was the advice of their parents.
In fact, one of the sisters, Ayesha was interested in doing law. But her parents told her she can pursue it after completing her MBBS course.
Similarly, when it came to the marriage of their daughters, Ahamed and his wife were specific that their daughters should marry someone from the same profession so that it would help the young couple understand each other better. They were also against the practice of dowry. They didn’t want to “sell off” their daughters but marry them off to a person who understood and loved them.
After working in Qatar for nearly 35 years, the couple with their daughters returned to Kerala. About two years later, Ahamed suffered chest pain and passed away. At the time, only two of the daughters were married off. Thereafter, Zaina encouraged and inspired her daughters to pursue their courses and married off two other daughters.
Fathima is presently working in a military hospital in Abu Dhabi. Hajra said she had returned from abroad and is planning to do her PG course.
Ayesha is serving in a hospital in Kodungallur while Faiza and her husband work in Kochi.
This story would read like a dream. But, as they say, Rome was not built in a day. The six women doctors and their mother would testify.
The sisters don’t have a photograph taken together with their Uppa. They carry an image of him in their hearts.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Good News / by Gladwin Emmanuel, Online Desk / October 20th, 2021
The World Youth Group has appointed Bahrain-based businessman Mohammed Mansoor as the Director of their Council.
Mansoor, Founder & CEO of Saara group heads a series of ventures and organisations spread across the domains of information technology, energy, oil & gas, sports, seed capital investments, and is a well-known social activist and philanthropist.
Founded in 2019, the World Youth Group, is a globally renowned team of elected young leaders, politicians, parliamentarians and diplomats. Their mission is to Educate, Encourage, and Engage global youth in social and political sectors within the UN realm by supporting the United Nations initiatives.
Apart from the UN and it’s Agencies, the entity to host highest number of elected representatives in the 76th UNGA. With 22 Members of Parliament, 6 Ministers and UN Permanent Representatives, representing over 25 countries, to participate in 5 Summits.
The founding organizations are Collegiate Congress Inc. (USA), All-Africa Students Union (AASU), European Students Union (ESU), Organization Continental Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Estudiantes (OCLAE), Young Democrats of America, and Young Republican National Federation (YRNF), and the founding members are then heads of the respective organizations.
Adding heft to the organisation is the Advisory Board which comprises of ten Permanent Representatives (Ambassadors) of UN Member States. Each Ambassador also acts as Chief Advisor for a Committee on SDG. With 108 national student unions, a dozen national youth political leadership, and over 45 Youngest Members of Parliament, they are to be the largest only elected youth leader’s consortium in the world.
Speaking about Mansoor’s appointment as Director – The Council, H.E. Ambassador Collen V.Kelapile, Permanent Representative of Botswana to the UN and President of UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) said, ” Mr Mansoor’s credentials as an entrepreneur and social activist speak for themselves and we, at the Advisory Board, are delighted to have him as our partner as we are confident that under Mr Mansoor’s able leadership the Council, which comprises of top experts in various fields and is the only non-parliamentary, non-diplomat team at the World Youth Group, will serve to further strengthen our group as we actively work towards United Nations Agenda 2030 – the Sustainable Development Goals and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development especially during these challenging times.”
Cristo Thomas, Chair, World Youth Group added, ” Mansoor’s association with us will add the much needed impetus to invigorate The Council, I am confident that we will grow by leaps and bounds and accelerate our progress towards our common goals.”
P.V. Abdul Wahab, the IUML leader, successfully implements Indian government’s development plan in Malappuram district.
It’s a dawn of a new era for a group of poor tribal pupils amid these unprecedented viral times at Nilambur taluka — a cluster of villages — in north Kerala’s Malappuram district.
They are back to learning and continuing their school education, which have been suspended since March 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic struck and resulted in the closure of schools.
Many of the pupils had virtually forgotten in-classroom teaching.
To make matters worse, they were cut off from the rest of the world because of the unavailability of Internet connectivity and lack of smartphones.
P.V. Abdul Wahab, a sitting member of the Rajya Sabha (RS) — the Upper House of Indian Parliament — and a non-resident Indian (NRI), who has been living in the UAE for the past four decades, told that their education suffered since March 2020.
“Some of them could barely remember the names of their schools because the prolonged break had almost wiped out their memories of the campus,” he said.
Wahab, who belongs to the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), which is a potent political force in the district, has arranged for the distribution of Internet-enabled tablets for the tribal pupils under the Indian government’s Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS) initiative.
He has been a three-term RS MP and heads the JSS initiative in the district.
So far, around 150 tablets have been given to the tribal pupils, who are overjoyed at being able to reconnect the world at large and continue with their education.
Wahab has been involved with the tribal villages of Karulai gram panchayat as part of the Indian government’s Saansad Adarsh Grama Yojnna, a developmental scheme, and has adopted four villages in the district.
“They live in the middle of the forest in small houses and most of them are unemployed,” Wahab said.
“The only source of economic sustenance is the forest produce that the male tribals collect and sell. Healthcare facilities are abysmal and most of them lack basic amenities such as access to electricity or even telephones,” he added.
The tribal villages are neither well-connected with other parts of the district or the southernmost Indian state and a majority of the locals don’t want to venture out for jobs.
The tribals of Nilambur are a rare exception to Kerala, whose ambitious and enterprising people have been heading out to other parts of India, Arabian Gulf or across the world for better financial prospects.
“But we’re trying to provide employment opportunities for them through specialised training in the hospitality, plumbing and electrical industries,” said Wahab, who has four-decade-long experience in the Middle East, and enjoys a filial bond with Nilambur.
In the UAE, he established the Bridgeway group of companies and along several other firms in his native India; his sons now look after the businesses.
He said the boost on the telecom and education fronts in these tribal villages because of the JSS, which helped instal over 10 basic towers to ensure 5 GHz wireless connectivity to the settlements. “The project aims to create a sustainable social and economic ecosystem for tribal people through a high-speed internet connection,” said Wahab. “It offers a total solution for the digital affairs of the inhabitants of the colonies. This allows them to interact directly with stakeholders and other public servants,” he added.
In the pre-Covid-19-pandemic era, tribal pupils only had access to single-teacher primary schools. The teacher taught all subjects and took four classes simultaneously.
After Grade IV, the tribal pupils would drop out because they were reluctant travel outside their native village.
To make matters worse, the devastating Kerala floods in 2018 and 2019 also destroyed half a dozen computers, a printer and a projector in the school.
The natural disaster was followed by the contagion, which struck a rude jolt as it denied poor tribal pupils’ basic education.
However, the sufferings appear to be a thing of the past, as the poor tribal children can look to a better and prosperous future, thanks to Wahab’s initiative to make the government’s scheme a roaring success.
source: http://www.khaleejtimes.com / Khaleej Times / Home> World> Rest of Asia / by Nithin Belle, Pune / August 26th, 2021
Dubai was a drastically different city four decades ago — and Amjad Shahbandari has seen it all.
These days, first-time visitors to Dubai marvel at the sight of the towering Burj Khalifa. But back in the 1980s, Indian expat Amjad Shahbandari experienced the same feeling when he saw the Dubai World Trade Centre and Deira Clocktower.
In the olden days, Dubai was a drastically different city — and Amjad has seen it all.
Four decades ago, a person could buy a car load of fruits and vegetables from Al Hamriya Market for just Dh25. High-rise buildings were a rarity. A taxi from Dubai to Abu Dhabi cost just Dh5.
But now, Amjad, a resident of 44 years, is bidding goodbye to his second home today.
“When I came to Dubai, I never had any idea as to how long I will live in this city. And now, life will be tough after staying here for almost all my life,” he said.
Hailing from Bhatkal, a coastal town in the southern state of Karnataka, India, Amjad arrived in Dubai on August 15, 1977. At the time, only a few Indian cities had connectivity to Dubai and some were layover destinations for international carriers.
“I flew from Bombay by Biman Bangladesh Airlines and it was the first of day of the holy month of Ramadan that year. The food provided by the airline crew was very tasty. And that may be a reason people from India travelled by Biman,” Amjad said.
He recalled being stuck at the Dubai airport for a few hours because none of his cousins or friends came to pick him up.
“The moment any traveller lands in Dubai, their eyes search for the Burj Khalifa. The feeling was the same for the mighty World Trade Centre and the Deira Clocktower back then,” he said.
After working a few odd jobs, Amjad got a job as an accountant at Fugro Middle East in 1978 and later served as the public relations officer for the company. Having worked at the same company for 43 years, Amjad is now saying goodbye.
“Leaving a place like Dubai is a grief that cannot be expressed in words,” he said. “It can just be felt and I am quite sure many have experienced this grief.”
Remembering the good old days
People who lived in Dubai decades ago never could have imagined what the city is now, Amjad said.
“It is something only His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai could have visualised,” he said. “Back then, none of us had the slightest of idea that from just a creek town, the city would have towers ascending and tearing through the clouds.”
The lifeline of the city back then was the abra — the main public transport available at the time.
“The taxis were very cheap and people were dependent mostly on abra rides to cross the creek,” he said.
Amjad had a few relatives in Abu Dhabi, and travelled by taxi once a month to visit them.
“People shared taxis in the 1980s to go to Abu Dhabi and it was just Dh5 for a one-way travel. The journey to the Capital felt long and tiring. But after the massive world-class infrastructure developed in the country, travelling to Abu Dhabi is just a cake walk,” he said.
Amjad, who received his driving license in 1984, said the process was stressful, but having a license was a matter of prestige.
“It took about eight months to get my driving license, as we got the assessment dates once every three to six months,” he said.
Moreover, there were no driving schools and those who wanted to learn how to drive had to take private classes.
Expecting the unexpected
In the 80s, Amjad said he and other Dubai residents thought the housing and commercial rent may decline in the coming years, but it never happened.
“We always thought the rent will decrease, but it never did. The development was lightning fast and the thought that rents might decrease vanished,” he said.
The landscape of Dubai changed every decade, he added.
“Dubai is different every 10 years. Before, it was just the World Trade Centre that was visible from afar, and now it’s hundreds of buildings,” he said.
At the time, there were only two malls.
“Wafi Mall and Al Ghurair were the two favourite places of residents and if you see now, there are countless malls,” he said.
A city for sports and art
Expats from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan frequented cricket matches at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Amjad still remembers the semi-final match between India and Pakistan during Rothmans Four-Nations Cup at the venue.
“March 22, 1985 was one of the most exciting days. We had been to the match and the Kapil Dev-led team was all out for 125,” he said.
After watching the first innings, he and his friends returned home disheartened with no intention of watching the second half.
“It was a Friday and it was our rest day. When we had been out in the evening, everyone was in a jovial mood as the Imran Khan-led side was all wicket down at 87 runs,” he said. “Witnessing such important events in this country cannot be forgotten.”
In addition to sports, Amjad said he has seen many cultural events, including performances by Indian poets Kaifi Azmi and Anjum Rehbar.
An ardent reader of Khaleej Times, Amjad added that he has proudly preserved the first edition of the paper.
“Khaleej Times is a gift to the UAE. It was the first English paper and expats depend on it for authentic and clear news,” he said.
He has also collected currencies of almost every nation as well as a few thousand telephone cards, 600 of which are Etisalat cards. “I have a few albums with currencies of every nation. It was a hobby and then developed into a passion.”
Amjad, who has three sons and a daughter, is flying to Mangalore, but plans to visit his second home regularly.
ayaz@khaleejtimes.com
source: http://www.khaleejtimes.com / Khaleej Times / Home> Year of the 50th / by SM Ayaz Zakir / September 23rd, 2021
Indian Social Forum Riyadh, Karnataka state committee held its committee election for term 2021-2024 on October 1 here.
pix: /twitter.com/SocialForum_Ksa
The committee elected Abdul Majid Punjalkatte as president, Sirajuddin Sajipa as general secretary, Umar Farooq Somawarpete as vice president, Jawad Basrur and Asghar Aboobakar Chakmaki as secretaries. Nizam Bajpe, Mihaf Sulthan, Nazeer Handel and Faisal Ammembala were elected as state committee members.
Indian Social Forum central committee members Haris Vavad and Mohammed were the returning officers who conducted the election process.
Outgoing president Sabith Bajpe addressed the gathering and urged the committee to continue its people-oriented initiatives and make the forum much stronger in the kingdom. General secretary Siraj Sajipa presented the three years’ activity report to the gathering.
Siddiq Madikeri rendered the vote of thanks.
source: http://www.daijiworld.com / Daijiworld.com / Home> Middle East / by Media Release / October 03rd, 2021
During the Big Ticket draw in Abu Dhabi on September 3, 2021. /Photo by Big Ticket
Indian expat in Ras Al Khaimah wins Dh12M in Big Ticket
Dubai :
An Indian expatriate who has been buying Big Ticket with his friends in the past year finally hit the jackpot after winning Dh12 million in the recent draw.
Abu Thahir Mohammed won on Friday (September 3) with ticket number 027700 that he bought on August 30.
He bought the ticket with the help of four colleagues who have been pooling their money for the monthly purchase in the last year and five months. The group will be sharing the prize money.
His friends called him up as soon as they found out their group won the jackpot in the recent draw.
What does Mohammed plan to do with his big win? “He has made no decision at this point in time, he’s still in shock,” his friend said.
List of winners in Big Ticket Series 231 draw
Dh12 million: Abu Thahir Mohammed, Indian, ticket number 027700 Dh1 million: Nina Mohamed Mohamed Raffik, Indian, ticket number 007943 Dh100,000: Sajithkumar PV, Indian, ticket number 218228 Dh80,000: Haren Joshi, Indian, ticket number 024342 Dh60,000: Zhongdong Huang, Chinese, ticket number 022396 Dh40,000: Afsal Paralath, Indian, ticket number 219099 Mercedes Benz: Ahmed Aish, Egyptian, ticket number 015598
source: http://www.expatmedia.net / Expat Media / Home / by Staff Reporter / September 05th, 2021
Jammu & Kashmir, INDIA / London, UNITED KINGDOM (UK):
A Kashmir-born Muslim doctor scrubbed up alongside an Israeli team to help a Jewish family was a reminder of the universal nature of medicine: Dr. Noor Ul Owase Jeelani.
Jerusalem:
A world-renowned Indian-origin pediatric neurosurgeon in the UK has helped a group of Israeli doctors to successfully operate on a pair of twins conjoined at the head, with the babies now likely to lead normal lives, a media report here said.
This is for the first time that Dr. Noor Ul Owase Jeelani, who was born in Kashmir and works at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, agreed to carry out such a surgery outside the UK when contacted by doctors at Israel’s Soroka hospital, according to a report in The Times of Israel (TOI).
He and his colleague, Professor David Dunway, are globally seen as experts on such cases.
Jeelani said, “from a doctor’s point of view, we’re all one” and that medicine transcends all divisions.
“He said that the fact that a Kashmir-born Muslim doctor scrubbed up alongside an Israeli team to help a Jewish family was a reminder of the universal nature of medicine,” the report quoted him as saying.
“It was a fantastic family that we helped,” Jeelani said, adding, as I’ve said all my life, all children are the same, whatever colour or religion”.
“The distinctions are man-made. A child is a child. From a doctor’s point of view, we’re all one,” he emphasised.
The doctor found the family’s delight at the success of the operation “deeply moving”.
“There was this very special moment when the parents were just over the moon. I have never in my life seen a person smile, cry, be happy, and be relieved at the same time. The mother simply couldn’t believe it, we had to pull up a chair to help her to calm down,” Jeelani told the news portal.
Jeelani is said to have also worked for months on the surgery of the Israeli twins.
“We’ve been involved right from the start, talking to the team in Israel and planning it with them over a period of six months,” he said.
“This latest surgery fulfills a key objective of our charity, namely, to empower local teams abroad to undertake this complex work, successfully utilising our experience, knowledge, and skills gained over the past 15 years with our previous four sets of twins,” the neurosurgeon stressed.
It is also a major achievement for the medical team at Israel’s Soroka hospital that managed this complex operation despite having never performed such a surgery.
It involved complicated on-the-spot decisions regarding which blood vessel to give to which twin, and assessing in real-time the impact that immediate decisions were having on the functioning of the brains, the report said.
Jeelani has performed four other such surgeries on twins who were conjoined at the head with fused skulls, intertwined brains, and shared blood vessels.
His involvement with conjoined twins started in 2017 when a neurosurgeon from Peshawar, Pakistan, asked him to operate on identical conjoined twins, Safa and Marwa, born three months earlier to a woman from rural northern Pakistan.
He raised the money for the surgery from a Pakistani oil trader called Murtaza Lakhani and, with Dunaway, successfully performed the operation after hundreds of hours of preparation.
Following the success, he went on to establish Gemini Untwined, a nonprofit organisation, to plan and perform such operations, the report said.
source: http://www.freepressjournal.in / The Free Press Journal / Home> World / by PTI / September 13th, 2021
The most awaited trending and entertaining Doha Music Lovers ‘Voice of World’ Online singing competition ended on September 10, 2021 by finding its three winners of both Hindi and Telugu languages simultaneously.
The show has gained huge popularity among fans and viewers because the show brought new concepts for all the viewers. The first episode of the show appeared on June 13, 2021 on Channel 5 and after three months, the grand finale happened at ICC’s Ashoka Hall, Doha, Qatar under 75 years Azadika Amrit Mahotsav in coordination with ICC. The show was produced by Doha Music Lovers Group in association with Telangana Praja Samithi Qatar.
The three winners announced in Hindi were Tejaswi from California, USA, Jyotisha Santosh from Doha, Qatar and Shruthi Prabhala from Bilaspur, India.
For Telugu the three winners were Medha Anantuni from Texas, USA, Geeta Lakshmi from Pennsylvania, USA and Mavuru Sravani from Vishakhapatnam, India. Many contestants are left in the show to entertain the viewers.
More than 650 singers participated in this ‘Voice of World’ online singing competition out of which 30 singers were shortlisted in Hindi and 30 in Telugu, it took three months to reach the finals with 10 rounds of competition in between.
The eminent dignitaries who were present at the Grand Finale are Babu Rajan ICC President was the chief guest, Krishna Kumar, general secretary of ICC, K S Prasad ICC advisory committee board chairman, Ziyad Usman, ICBF president, Vinod Nair, ICBF vice-president, Azim Abbas, IBPC immediate president, Gadde Srinivas, president of Telangana Praja Samithi Qatar, Nandini Abbagoni president of Telangana Jagruthi Qatar, Satyanarayana president of Andhra Kala Vedika, Khaja Nizamuddin, president of Telangana Welfare Association and Syed Rafi chairman of Channel 5 and director and producer of Voice of World and last but not the least Jai Prakash Singh of North Central India Group.
Talking to media Syed Rafi said that it was very difficult to decide the winners as everyone sang very well, but as it is a competition and we have to take some hard decisions, the winners were decided based on Judges votes, committee votes, elite members votes and public votes. It is one of the longest season and ended with a bang, marking a new era in online singing contest said K S Prasad of ICC advisory committee chairman.
The winners will be given cash prize of Rs 50,000; Rs 30,000 and Rs 20,000 for first, second and third positions in each language. Voice of World online singing competition was sponsored by Dana World Contracting Co Wll, Telangana Food Suncons, H P Industries, Jai Prakash Singh and by Indian Hyderabadi Spices Restaurant.
The Grand Finale witnessed spectacular performances by Doha Music Lovers Group and this program was live on youtube wherein thousands of people watched it online from various countries.
Arif Rayees, Priti Vikramnath from Qatar and Srilatha Mula and Dr Vishwanatha Sridevi from India were the judges of this competition.
Mohinder Jalandhary, Preeti Trivedi, Venkappa Bhagavatula and Harika were the anchors for this singing competition. The show has completed 10 rounds before the grand finale.
Speaking on the occasion Gadde Srinivas president of TPS said that they are proud to provide this kind of platform to budding artist and he thanked Syed Rafi for taking this initiative and said that he and his group will be ready to support him all the time. Sophia Bukhari appreciated the efforts taken by Syed Rafi to provide a unique platform to budding artist on an international level and said that HP Industries would be proud to be associated with these kind of programs.
Jai Prakash Singh said that its not an easy task to conduct such kind of program with so much ease and professionalism, and he said kudos to Syed Rafi and his team for surpassing all the expectations. Praveen Buyyani of Telangana Food Suncons said that he was closely watching Voice of World from the first round and he observed how the program changed from the day 1 to present with lot of technicalities, background changes, lighting effects and change of stages, he said that he never expected that these many changes can be done in any program with limited resources, he concluded saying that it was an excellent program which surpassed all the expectations.
Baburajan president of ICC said that they are ready to support this kind of programs and said that they would love people to come forward which such kind of new initiatives and he congratulated Syed Rafi for conducting such a wonderful program. The show was concluded with vote of thanks by Venkat general secretary of Telangana Praja Samithi Qatar.
source: http://www.daijiworld.com / Daijiworld.com / Home> Middle East / by Media Release / September 13th, 2021
The Red Bull Neymar Jr’s Five is counted among the largest amateur football tournaments in the world.
Also a fan of Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr is a huge inspiration to Shahzad. (Image Credits: Instagram/iamshahzad10)
A teenager from Kerala qualified in an online talent hunt that got hundreds of entries from all over the world.
The boy was handpicked as one of the seven freestyle footballers in the show dubbed as 2021 Red Bull Neymar Jr’s Five. Shahzad Mohammed Rafi, a boy from Pazhayangadi, Kannur, made his state proud by achieving the feat. The 17-year-old will play alongside Brazilian superstar Neymar Jr in a global five-a-side event to be held in Qatar.
The PSG footballer was a part of the committee comprising the seven panelists that examined 60-second videos of footballing talent shared by interested contestants on Instagram. They were supposed to upload a clip showcasing their skills with the hashtag: #OutPlayThemAll. Shahzad is one of the two qualified from India in the upcoming championship. The Red Bull Neymar Jr’s Five is counted among the largest amateur football tournaments in the world.
The candidates had to be evaluated under multiple level screenings based on their performance. Shahzad participated in the last year’s edition but did not qualify at the national level. A class 12 student of Wadihuda Higher Secondary School, he is born to Muhammad Rafi and Sherifa Rafi. Shahzad showed interest in football since he was in class 6. As his family is settled in Kuwait, he is listed as an entry from there.
Abhinash Shanmugamfrom Bengaluru also secured a place in the final. Jaimy Schallenbergh (Belgium), Simon Gustavo (Brazil), Leon Gillies Mannes (Norway), Giorgio Montalti (Italy), and Stanley Godian (Nigeria) are the other freestylers selected by Neymar Jr.
Shahzad told Onmanorama that he is eager to meet and play alongside Neymar Jr. Also a fan of Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr is a huge inspiration to Shahzad. A few years ago, a chance meeting with French freestyler Sean Garnier became the turning point for the boy. The event with Neymar Jr is likely to be held in December or early next year.
