Three under-14 boys, two from Pandua SBS High School, Kolkata and the other from CRPF High School, Delhi, were chosen at the end of the Mahindra Youth Football Challenge at Bangalore on Friday to undergo a 10-day training at Scottish football club Celtic in Glasgow in August.
Premananda Singha, Mangal Murmu (both Kolkata) and Mukesh Kumar (Delhi) were selected on the basis of their performances in the tournament's Inter-City leg involving the champion schools from six cities, followed by a four-day camp involving the best 22 players, according to a media release.
The selected trio would travel to Glasgow and stay and train at the Celtic FC Youth Academy, enjoying all the facilities available to the junior players of the club.
"We are extremely happy today as we identify the boys who will be sent to Celtic FC in Scotland for further training. The Mahindra Youth Football Challenge has grown significantly in the last two years and I am proud to say that we are achieving the objectives that we set ourselves, which is to promote football at the grass roots level," said Mahindras' S P Shukla.
Terming the tournament a great success, Mark Reid, the Celtic FC Youth Academy coach, said that the initiative would be fruitful to the young boys in pursuing their career in football.
"This year, we have again been part of a fantastic Mahindra Youth Football Challenge and it has been a great success. We hope this also gives the selected players a pathway to again progress and improve, when they come and visit the Celtic Academy for the ten day coaching period in Scotland," he said.