Student of PMC school to show skills at FIFA event

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PUNE: Two days before the FIFA World Cup kicks off in Moscow on June 14, a different tournament backed by the world football governing body will start in Russia as a part of a wider youth outreach programme. And boy! A Puneite will “play the ball” there.
Meet Rudresh Gaudnor, a student of a PMC-run school. A part of a national championship winning team from Kothrud, he will participate in the 2018 Football For Friendship, commonly known as F4F.

Rudresh is one of the two student footballers from India who will participate in the event sponsored by the Russian petroleum giant Gazprom — one of FIFA’s commercial partners. This will be the sixth season of the initiative.

Rudresh was noticed around four years ago in an initiative called Just For Kicks (JFK), primarily aimed at children from lower-income communities to help them gain new life skills and a chance at social mobility through football. The students selected for F4K will be divided into 32 teams for a tournament, but with mixed nationalities, and subsequently participate in a conference on June 12 and 13 with young players from all 212 FIFA members. Rudresh will not participate in the tournament, though.

“This is the second year that we have been able to send children to the F4F. Rudresh’ primary job will be to document his experience at the event as a young journalist. The other selected student, Surya Varikuti from Bengaluru, will play in the tournament,” said Karen D’Mello, one of the JFK coordinators.

According to the organizers, Rudresh is a child of migrant workers from Karnataka. His father and mother are a vegetable seller and a tailor, respectively. He is known in his school for editing the school’s newsletter. He started playing football around five years ago, during which he was noticed by JFK.
His years in football helped him pick up some coaching skills. Rudresh helps the JFK coaches organize their Under-8 football teams.
“He became a part of multiple national championship winning teams. The team he plays for, the Kothrud Wolves, competes with teams formed in four other cities in the rest of India. His team has actually won the championship four times,” D’Mello said.

Source : Times of India

Link : https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/student-of-pmc-school-to-show-skills-at-fifa-event/articleshow/63917126.cms

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