Chennai, Sept: Bundesliga club, Borussia Dortmund (BVB) became the latest entrant to develop grassroot football in India, as they announced a collaboration with World1 Sports, an Indian-based football consultancy firm, promising to bring an opportunity for the country’s young footballers.
The eight-time Bundesliga champion’s partnership marks the club’s first major outreach towards Indian football community.
According to a release, the partnership will look to leverage the globally renowned technical expertise of BVB and W1 Sports’ know-how of the Indian football landscape to promote grassroot development across the country.
Speaking about the partnership, Chief Operating Officer, World 1 Sports, Vikram Rajkumar said, ‘We are delighted to partner with Borussia Dortmund, one of the widely respected and recognised clubs in world football today. Our vision is to create a sports first philosophy in the country. We want to build and provide a structure for football in India that allows sportspersons and communities to concentrate on achieving footballing experience.’
Having had the opportunity to forge a relationship with Indian football, the German club assures to win more hearts and mould its brand further in India.
‘We believe India has a strong passion towards football and Dortmund is attracted by the craze for the sport here. Wherever there is passion for football, there is space or the Dortmund story. We are pleased to be partnering with World1 Sports who is driving the football and communities in India. We are looking forward to this sustainable program geared towards reaching, connecting and growing the Indian football community with the BVB way.’
The aim of the partnership is to garner knowledge on how kids can improve their training regime, who aspire to be footballers at a later stage. This escalates the possibility of the Indian contingent playing in Europe in the possible future.
In partnership with Eight Goals One Foundation (8one), W1 Sports has been running a grassroots initiative, the Young Legends’ League (YLL) in Manipur and Mizoram over the last two and three years respectively.
The initiative is for the kids between the age of five and 12 and is aimed towards enhancing their holistic development across five months through weekly matches.
YLL currently caters to 600 children and will be expanding to other locations in near future.
In Tamilnadu, World1 Sports has tied up with Velammal institutions and through its 46 schools aims to reach over 1,50,000 students.