KOCHI: Having made it into the U-15 national football team, Ebindas Y is on cloud nine. The 14-year-old, Class IX student of St Vincent’s School is the only Keralite player in the squad. His impressive performance during the all-India National U-14 Football Championship last year was instrumental in his selection.
It was during the U-15 national camp that concluded recently in Goa, that Ebindas was selected to the U-15 team. “The camp was cut short due to the Covid-19 scare. Trips to foreign countries as part of the preparation process were also postponed. During the camp, we played several matches against top teams such as the Goa U-18 team, which was a learning curve for me. Practise sessions which focusced on improving technical skills required for football were also helpful,” says Ebindas.
A Kollemcode native, Ebindas has been training with the Manvilla based LiFFA football academy for the past two years. As a player who likes to score a lot of goals, he idolises Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi and has been influenced by the star’s game. To put Ebindas’ goal scoring stats into perspective; he was the top-scorer with 8 goals in the South Zone qualifiers of the U-14 national football championship, held in Bengaluru last year.
“I had scored all the goals in our match against Telangana which ended with a 5-1 scoreline. The goals also proved valuable as it helped us qualify for the nationals which was later held at Kolkata,” Ebindas says.
Having showcased man of the match performances in most of the matches that he has played for LiFFA, Ebindas is confident that he can make it to the big stage. ”My dream is to play well and secure a chance to play for the Kerala Blasters in the Indian Super League (ISL). I also want to win a trophy for the blasters,” he adds.