Published Fri, Apr 16 10 07:10 PM
Laxmi Devi Metz (France), Apr 16 (PTI) The soaring salaries of footballers in France can prove to be a boon in disguise for Indian players with the Football Club of Metz, that produced the likes of Franck Ribery, Louis Saha and Robert Pires, turning to the subcontinent to find less expensive young talent. One of the top ten football clubs in Europe for grooming young talents, the Football Club of Metz boasts of winning many trophies, including the Danone National Cup (under 11 years) and League Cup and is keen that players from India don the club''s jersey. "We cannot afford to pay for top French players as they are beyond our reach. And that''s why we are looking at acquiring talent from outside the country," 78-year-old Football Club of Metz (FC Metz) Director Commercial Pierre Brochet told PTI here. He said that "the Metz club is keen to get young talent from India through a partnership with the All India Football Federation or private organisations". Although India does not boast of a footballing pedigree, ranked only 132 in the FIFA rankings, there is a belief among officials here that there must be some hidden talent, as shown by the likes of Bhaichung Bhutia and Sunil Chettri, who recently signed up for Kansas City Wizards in the US Major League Soccer. "Among 1.2 billion population in India, there must be some good talent. We want to help FC Metz to tap the talent and give sound training in football, though majority of them are cricket followers," Moselle Economic Development Agency Director for India, M Thierry Petry said. Currently, the FC Metz is training kids from Africa and countries like China, Canada in the age group of 16-18. Young children are trained for up to four years at Metz, the capital city of Moselle Province, he added. The club is hunting for talent outside the country as hiring any top French player at present would cost between 60 and 100 million euros, Brochet noted, adding that while the budget of the FC Metz is just 16 million euros. "Acquiring and training young talent comes out to be cheaper for us as we have to invest only 30,000 euro a player per annum," said the club''s Director for Training Denis Schaeffer, who is currently training five Chinese kids. MORE PTI LUX RKL PDS
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