Chhetri to mentor national talent hunt

Indian football captain Sunil Chhetri has joined as the mentor and brand ambassador of a nation-wide talent hunt programme to pick 15 youngsters in the 8-14 age group for a comprehensive five-year residential schooling in Kolhapur, western Maharashtra.

Under the programme titled 'DreamChasers' and started by three retired army personnel, youngsters would be provided top-class coaching and technical expertise by Sporting Clube de Portugal, for whose reserve side Chhetri had played for a while in 2012-13. 

The talent hunt will be held in 15 venues and 10 cities, after kicking off here in April, to cover Navi Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Kolhapur, Baroda, Gandhinagar, Kerala, Delhi, Kolkatta and Guwahati, it was announced at a media conference here on Wednesday.

The selected lot would be nurtured and would undergo professional training until the age of 18 at the residential training centre of Proforce - housed at the Dr Cyrus Poonawala International School in Kolhapur. They would be entitled "to a 14-days sponsored training camp at SCP (Sporting Clube de Portugal). They will also be inducted into the special training programme, which is a commitment for five years," it was announced.

"I am going to be part of all major decisions taken. They will be provided the best possible training. Everything will be provided for. The most important thing is coaching," said Chhetri.