Gianluca Zambrotta impressed with Delhi Dynamos' youth set-up

New Delhi: Delhi Dynamos Football Club head coach Gianluca Zambrotta, who has been in Delhi for only two days, is wasting absolutely no time to get to know his new club better. Despite being on an extremely tight schedule, he found time to mentor the club’s youth team players at a training camp here. The under-18 players are currently training for the Gothia Cup, considered to be the world’s largest youth football tournament, to be held in Sweden later this month. He was accompanied by club president Prashant Agarwal and first team players Anas Edathodika, Souvik Chakrabarti and Sanjiban Ghosh. Zambrotta had a long chat with the boys and gave them a pep talk, sharing his own experiences during his two-hour session with them. The Italian, an ardent believer in grassroots training, was quite impressed with the facilities and praised the efforts of the entire management. “I was told that our club has a great youth set-up. After coming here, I must say I am very impressed. I have always believed in a strong junior level programme as I think it is the best way to go about developing a sport and promoting a healthy sporting culture in the country,” said the Italian World Cup winner. The 39 year-old former Juventus player, who seemed to like the quality of the youth players, lauded the coaches for their good work. “After talking to them and seeing them train, I can say that this is a bunch of talented young players. The coaches have ensured that these footballers have all the necessary qualities in them to represent the club and India in the future,” he added. Delhi Dynamos FC is known to have, arguably, the best grassroots development programme in the ISL. With academies and training camps across the city, DDFC is looking to create an entire generation of young lions who will ultimately form the best talent pool in the country. “As is well known, we have a strong grassroots programme. We try and scout for talented kids and give them proper training facilities. We want to see them develop into good players and make the club and the country proud in the future,” said Prashant Agarwal, President, Delhi Dynamos FC. Officials from the Indian Air Force were also present at the training session, since the Subroto Cup is organized by the IAF. Squadron Leader Shouvik Bhattacharya, praised the efforts of Delhi Dynamos and put emphasis on how crucial it is to develop football at the junior level, "The budding footballers scouted during the Subroto Cup have got the biggest opportunity of their lifetime to participate in The Gothia Cup. Being the football development partner of the Subroto Cup, Delhi Dynamos FC’s initiative to bring Gianluca Zambrotta to motivate these young kids is great. His presence will be a great motivation for the kids and will help them perform well in the tournament,” he said.