Six Kashmiri footballers to be trained as coaches in Brazil

Srinagar: Six young Kashmiri footballers will have their dream come true when they fly to Brazil, the land of football, to train as coaches.

Basharat Bashir Baba of Pulwama, Masood Maqbool and Imran Bhat (both from Srinagar), Abid Yaqoob of Budgam, Muzamil Mahmood of Ganderbal and Tahir Maqbool of Bandipora will leave for Brazil as part of cultural sports interchange programme. The six boys will fly to Sao Paulo for a training course provided by Syndicate of Professional Football Trainers of Sao Paulo (SITREFESP), Juan Marcos, who runs the International Sports Academy Trust (ISAT) in the valley, told reporters. ISAT has been working in the valley for last several years to train young boys. "The boys are attending one of the most important football courses that will give them an official certificate to train football at professional level," Marcos said. "This is to prepare them to be coaches so they get ready to train more boys in our academy in Kashmir," he said. Among the six boys who will fly to Brazil, one was detained for two days last year for taking part in the protests and another is a son of a carpenter. "I was detained for two days last year. I was not pelting stones but only taking part in the protests," said Imran, who plays football in the day and sells used clothes in the evening to earn livelihood. This is for the second time in two years that ISAT, football development programme in valley, is helping Kashmiri boys train in academies overseas. PTI