Table of Contents
Introduction
Matua Football Foundation (MFF) football academy has already drawn the attention of the Kolkata football fraternity by preparing five teams for different divisions of Kolkata football, starting from nursery football league (under-14), 4th division, 3rd division, 2nd division to the First division league. Simultaneously, MFF academy has also built up a women’s football team that made its debut in the Kolkata women’s premier league last season.
MFF’s recent inspiring success is its two footballers, Premangshu Thakur and Bishal Sutrodhar who ensured berths within the six-selected young footballers to train at Spanish club CF Motril for two weeks in September.
The Journey and Motive
MFF was founded by former professional footballers Gautam Thakur, Chandal Pal, and Tushar Biswas who is now president of MFF. MFF started participating in Kolkata’s First division league by the name of Matua-Milanbithee Club.
Tusharkanti Biswas said on the issue,
“Our motive was to develop young promising footballers by setting up more academies in the districts of Bengal. We were on a mission of producing footballers who could represent the state, and country in the future. Our philosophy is to develop a perfect youth society through sport, especially football.”
MFF Academy
MFF has set up its academy in a village & named Kalipada Thakur Football Academy (KTFA) at Bagula village in Nadia district which is around two hours by train from Kolkata. Along with a full-sized ground, the academy has a modern gym and well-to-do separate hostels for both the boys and girls.
The chief coach and founder-member Gautam Thakur said,
“We are nurturing nearly 150 young footballers including boys and girls for the last five years. We have several potential footballers. But they need exposure. That is why we decided to field teams in all the divisions.”
The Desire of MFF Academy
Premangshu and Bishal’s major breakthrough is inspiring MFF a lot. Gautam Thakur said,
“Their selection showed that it is also possible to produce quality footballers from this academy. So, we are giving more time to the footballers, trying to improve their standard and now our focus is on the forthcoming First Division league. We want to get promoted to the Kolkata Premier League, play against East Bengal and Mohun Bagan.”
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