Coimbatore, TAMIL NADU :

He has played in more than 20 tournaments at district and state level, and bagged many medals and awards.

Chennai  :

Track Force Sports Club, a student-run football club in Coimbatore, is the talk of the town because of its three players — A Mohammed Arsath, S Toufiq Ahamed, Mohammed Manas. The club has more than 70 players who are trained over the weekends. One of them is 12-year-old Mohammed Manas, who was recently selected for All India U-13 Youth Indian League, scheduled to be held in February 2019.

“My brother and his friends play football during weekends. I used to accompany them. Watching them play, I also became passionate about the sport and started training at Track Force Sports Club (TFSC) in 2015. The club conducts classes on weekends and public holidays, free of cost. Other days, I go to a ground nearby his home located at Selvapuram, Coimbatore and practice regularly,” says Manas, a class seven student of SBOA Matriculation School, Coimbatore.

He has played in more than 20 tournaments at district and state level, and bagged many medals and awards. Recently, he won the Best Player Award in the Dream Lights League of Champions, 2018 held on December 30 at Coimbatore. “I practice for two hours a day to increase my speed and stamina. Hard work and rigorous practice at TFSC helped me get selected for First Kick School of Soccer, All India Academy for football, which will represent a team of 25 players in All India Youth League under 12 category. The dates of the league is not announced yet,” he says.

On the other hand, Arsath’s and Toufiq’s dream of getting selected in Chennaiyin FC, an Indian Super League football club came true. They are the only players from Coimbatore to get selected in Chennaiyin FC team. “I started playing football when I was nine years old. I am a goalkeeper and I train regularly at TFSC.

We had selection matches at 16 places across Tamil Nadu and 25 members got selected for the team. We are the only two from Coimbatore to have made this selection in under-14 category,” says 14-year-old Arsath, a class nine student of Sri Ramachandra Vidhyalaya School.  The boys will undergo training at football camps for five months.

When Toufiq started playing football in class seven, he didn’t make it to the school team. He began training at TFSC and after two years of practice, he got selected to play in the school team in 2018. “The selection for Chennaiyin FC began in February 2018 at SRM University, Chennai. We underwent another selection in March and got selected along with 25 others players for the team.

I play wing back in the game. In the camps, we were trained on ball control, shooting, ball sense, game sense, drill practice, speed and accuracy, defence, offence, ball tackling and more,” says Toufiq, a class 9 student of Carmel Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Coimbatore. The club sponsors the boys for camps and tournaments.  All the three players aim to play for the country and become a part of the Indian football team.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by SP Kirthana / Express News Service / January 08th, 2019