THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Thiruvananthapuram Super Division League side Kovalam Football Club will launch a residential football academy at Punnakulam near Kovalam here - which will make them one among the few clubs in the state to undertake such an initiative.
As many as 16 footballers from impoverished families and hailing from in and around the coastal belt will form the first batch of the residential academy which is scheduled to be inaugurated by Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday.
Kovalam FC will provide coaching, food, and accommodation to these boys - all free of cost. Service of special tutors to help them with their homework, English language, and computer literacy has been arranged.A yoga instructor and physiotherapist, as well as a doctor on call, will also be made available. Noted film director Adoor Gopalakrishnan, MLA M Vincent and Pathanamthitta Sub-collector Anu S Nair are also expected to attend the function.
Under their new chairman T J Mathew and supported by Mathew-Sally Educational Trust, the hostel is a part of Kovalam’s ambitious five-year plan to build its own campus for 130 under-16 players from 5th to 12th standards along with a football kindergarten and primary school hostel. “The children selected for the project are footballers from our elite group who have been training with us over the last few years. They will also have a health insurance coverage now,” said Ebin Rose, coach of Kovalam FC.
“We are also signing MoUs with a high school and colleges to ensure that these children get free education until they graduate with a university degree,” said Ebin. The club said this will prepare the footballers for life if football does not work out for them.
Kovalam is also actively seeking financial assistance from corporations and philanthropists to build a stadium complex of their own in the region which will cost them around Rs 2 crore. In the meantime, the club is to lease a school ground for 15 years which will function as its home ground.