The Red and Golds wanted a long term deal but the Los Blancos were a bit skeptical and gave their nod for a short term partnership only.
In what should be considered as a giant step for Indian football, Kolkata giants East Bengal have signed a deal with Real Madrid for their upcoming residential academy at New Town in Kolkata. The Spanish club will send a technical team to train the kids at the academy, and some of the selected footballers will to travel to Madrid for special training programs.
“We were looking for a major club for a possible tie-up with our youth development programme. We had approached several clubs from English Premier League, La Liga and Bundesliga over the past two-three months. Real Madrid have eventually shown interest in our initiative. We are hopeful of a long, fruitful and meaningful association with them and it can be a game-changer,” East Bengal official Debabrata Sarkar was quoted as saying by an English daily
The Red and Golds wanted a long term deal but the Los Blancos were a bit skeptical and gave their nod for a short term partnership only. “They are more interested in two-three week programmes in which their technical team will come and help our academy boys and coaches for around 15 days and, subsequently, our boys will also go to Real Madrid for similar programmes,” Sarkar added. The residential academy will be inaugurated on Saturday, and former legends like Baichung Bhutia, I.M Vijayan and Bruno Coutinho will be present.
Incidentally Kolkata based Indian Super League (ISL) outfit Atletico de Kolkata have already been involved with Real Madrid's cross city rival Atletico Madrid for two years now. Atletico are the co-owners of the first ISL champions, which has former Indian cricket captain, Sourav Ganguly as their another co-owner. So this news about East Bengal's tie-up with Real will be a major boost to the state of football in the country because ultimately it's the youth who, if trained properly can lead the nation forward in FIFA tournaments.
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