Sujal Kahar, a goalkeeper from a less privileged family in Parel, has just finished a dream trip to Russia. He watched the Confederations final between Germany and Chile from the stands in St. Petersberg. The 12-year-old attends the tuition-free government school — MCGM Saibabapath MPS supported by Educo. He was shortlisted as the global Football for Friendship Social program in Russia as Young Ambassador from over 2500 kids by Just For Kicks, a school intervention programme working towards developing life skills amongst children belonging to lower income families by incorporating football training in their school curriculum.
Sujal played in the Yellow Team of Friendship, alongside young players from Pakistan, Iceland, South Korea, South Africa, Slovenia, Armenia and Venezuela. The Yellow Team was just a game shy of reaching the finals, losing 3-4 to eventual winners the Orange team in a tightly contested semi-final encounter. From the streets of Mumbai to St. Petersburg, the journey has bought about a positive transformation for Sujal, instilling in him the confidence to address a crowd of over 1000 people, as one of the key note speakers for the closing ceremony of the programme.
“I am glad I got to be a part of the programme and had the chance to make new friends from different countries. I enjoyed playing the championship and saved a lot of shots with my new goalkeeper gloves.
“I had a great time discussing, practicing and playing football with the other players. I will try and remain in touch with the friends that I have made here,” said the class VI student who not long ago was busy searching Russia on the map and now will get into routine sharing residence with 15-member joint family.
Ananya Kamboj, a class 8 student from Vivek High School, Mohali, also represented India as a Young Journalist. The F4F programme, supported by Gazprom and FIFA, focuses on the development of children’s football, fostering tolerance and respect for different cultures and nationalities among children from different countries. India joins the program me for the first time and will participate alongside over 60 other countries.
The programme took place from June 27 to July 2 and brought together young football players and young journalists aged 12 years from 64 countries. The young footballers were united in eight International Teams of Friendship, and were accompanied by young journalists who were selected to report on the Football For Friendship events. India joined the programme for the first time.
The F4F program consisted of a three day training camp held for young footballers. The camp was guided by young coaches and famous football players that helped young players to establish relations, elaborate the team tactics and feel the support of other team members.
The training camp was followed by the final championship that was held on July 1. The championship helped demonstrate to guests from all over the world that friendship is possible regardless of gender, physical abilities and nationality. Alexandr Kerzhakov, one of Russia’s best-ever players, its record goal-scorer and a local hero as he plays for Zenit St. Petersburg, was the guest of honour for the championship.
The event was attended by more than 1,000 guests from 64 countries all over the world.
