CHENNAI: When Michael Soosairaj was just a kid, he was selected to play for the India U-13 team. For someone so young, what held more appeal than playing for the national team was the fact that the match was held outside India. “I was excited,” Soosairaj remembers.
“But I did not have a passport. By the time I applied for one and it came through, it was too late. I was crushed. Ever since, it has been my dream to travel outside the country.”
The midfielder is a lot closer to realising his dream. He is one of the four Chennai City players who are set to travel to Finland as part of an arrangement that the club has with the Finnish team JS Hercules.
Sources close to Chennai City revealed that Soosairaj, Nandhakumar, Edwin Sydney Vanspaul and A Beautin would likely travel to Finland to train with Hercules. If they impress, they may get a chance to boot up in the Finnish third division that Hercules play in.
Of the four, the progress of Soosairaj and Nandhakumar will be of particular interest to Indian football fans, for they have been two of the most promising youngsters in the I-League this season, winning Man of the Match awards in two of Chennai City’s four wins. An official announcement will be made after Hercules officials, including their technical director, arrive in the city on Monday.
The Finnish club too put out a statement on their website regarding the visit.
“JS Hercules chairman Mikko Perälä and member of the board Panu Halonen travel on Monday to India to visit Chennai City FC management and to discuss how to activate the partnership between the clubs,” it says.
“There are way too many examples of partnerships in the football world that exist only on paper. The one between JS Hercules and Chennai City FC intends to be a delightful exception in this regard.”
Soosairaj & Co’s Finnish sojourn will mark the latest in a fast-expanding list of Indian footballers getting to train outside the country.
While Gurpreet Singh Sandhu remains the only India footballer to play in a European top flight league (Stabaek in the Norwegian Tippeligaen), others like Romeo Fernandes and Ashique Kuruniyan have gone abroad with mixed fortunes.
vishnu.prasad@newindianexpress.com