FC Madras, a new age football academy with a mission to create champions for life,
Chennai, India, March 2023 – FC Madras, a new age football academy with a mission to create champions for lif e, today unveiled a world-class football facility at Mahabalipuram, near Chennai.
The new ‘Home of FC Madras’ i s built to FIFA standards, specified by the AIFF (All India Football Federation) and AFC (Asian football Confeder ation).
The pristine 23 acre integrated campus houses state-of-the-art floodlit foot ball pitches including East Asia’s first Hybrid Pitch, a functional strength and conditioning center, medical and re covery facilities, an indoor int ernational-standard futsal pitch, a six-lane swimming pool, a residential hostel wit h a modern kitchen and dini ng facilities and an alternate learning center following the NIOS (National Institute o f Open Schooling) curri culum.
The academy has made a long-term commitment towards talent development and aims to provide a unique ble n d of world-class football infrastructure, a methodology covering football, education and life skills. The residenti al facility can accommodate up to 130 athletes and meet their training, housing and learning needs.
FC Madras offers a scholarship program for talented young footballers selected through a rigorous nation-wide scouting program. The aim of the academy is to be one of the best finishing schools for football in India which wi ll produce players who will represent India internationally and make the nation proud.
“The dream is to find the next Messi from Madras,” said Girish Mathrubootham, Founder of FC Madras. “Our cou ntry has amazing young sporting talent that deserve success, but need the infrastructure, environment and opp ortunity to unlock their true potential. It is encouraging to see the government and private companies take a big ger interest in sports and its infrastructure, and with the new FC Madras campus, I believe we have taken anothe r step forward to inspire other leaders and businesses to create similar academies because our future champions need it.”
“FC Madras will be India’s first ‘smart football academy’ blending the must-haves of global football academy pra ctices and technological advancements in sports technology: data analytics, video analysis, sports science and o ptimal performance based sports nutrition for our athletes,” said Dhananjai CKM (aka DJ), the Director of Sports & Governance at FC Madras.
A world-class sports professional from Chennai, DJ has 18+ years of experience in data-driven decision making i n sport and high-performance management of athletes. He currently heads the data and performance vertical of Mumbai Indians, the IPL’s (Indian Premier League) most successful team and has been involved with the fran chi se since inception. DJ’s association with the Indian cricket team is well known and spans over a decade of work i ng with the best of the best. He is also the Indian cricket team’s most successful data coach and was an integral part of the three ICC World Title winning Indian cricket teams (T20 World Cup 2007, Cricket World Cup 2011 and Champions Trophy 2013).
“Sport as a career was previously considered taboo in India. The time has come for India to build a sporting infras tructure that can act as a finishing school for sports, just like the IITs, IIMs and other premier educational institut ions are producing the business and tech leaders of our country. There are very few residential youth academies in the country which combine football, academics, character development and social responsibility. Investments in tech-enabled sports academies like FC Madras will produce next-generation smart athletes for India,” added DJ who has been instrumental in the planning and development of the new facility.
Abhishek Yadav, former Deputy General Secretary of the AIFF and the former Captain of the Indian National Fo o tball Team will be joining as the CEO of FC Madras. VenkateshShanmugan, a former Captain of the Indian natio nal football team, former Assistant Coach of the Indian National Football team and former head coach of the Ind ia U20 team, will be joining FC Madras as the new Technical Director of Football, after his current stint with East Bengal FC. Dr. CN Narayana has been appointed as the Director of Education & Life Skills.
To build sustainability in operations and to encourage community participation, FC Madras will introduce sum mer camps, weekend programs, corporate events and membership programs.
Celebrities including ‘Superstar’ Rajinikanth, cricketers including R Ashwin, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and top football stars like Sana Singh – Hyderabad FC, Rahul Beke – Indian National team player and Captain – Mumbai City FC, Akash Mishra – Hyderabad FC, Anirudh Thapa – Indian National team player and Captain – Chennaiyin FC and Sandesh Jhingan – Indian National team player and Bengaluru FC shared their wishes for the club and the young players, virtually via video.
FC Madras will start enrollment soon. For more details, visit https://www.fcmadras.com/
