CONRAD DIAS
Ranchi, Dec 19: Many professional footballers across Jharkhand has aspired to represent India in the FIFA world cup after the thrilling final on Sunday which saw Argentina lift the world cup after 36 years in a close-fought match against the French team.
Lagatar24.com spoke to three budding Under 17 footballers who are representing Jharkhand, Saikhom Pari Meitei, Suraj Ahammed and Ripu Narzary, and asked them about what did they learn from the FIFA world cup 2022?
Saikhom, a native of Manipur has been playing for Jharkhand for some time now and is currently training with SAIL Bokaro for the upcoming I-League. He said that the FIFA WC 2022 taught him about teamwork, and hard work and has inspired him to never lose hope in any tough situation.
He added that he is a big fan of Lionel Messi from Argentina and was over the moon when Argentina won the World Cup on Sunday.
Similarly, Suraj Ahammed is another top under 17 player from Jharkhand who has been representing Jharkhand in various important tournaments. Originally from West Bengal, Suraj chose Jharkhand as his home team for under 17 tournaments.
He said that an important thing that he learnt by watching the world cup matches was that the game is not over till the last second. He added that every second is important in these matches.
He added that his idol is Christiano Ronaldo from Portugal and was really dejected when Portugal lost in the quarterfinals against Morocco which also ended Ronaldo’s dream of winning a world cup.
Another top player for Jharkhand in the Under 17 squad is Ripu Narzary. Born and brought up in Assam, the attacking player is a big fan of Kylian Mbappe of France and believes that Indian footballers need to up their staminas if they want to play in the world cup.
“The FIFA World Cup was such a good tournament as most of the matches went down to the wire. I really liked how players did technical passing in such a high-tensed situation and that is something which I want to adopt in my game going forward,” Narzary said.
Subhash Rajak, the coach of SAIL Bokaro said that the three players are currently the best players in the squad which is training in the camp for the upcoming trials of the i-league to be held from December 23.
