08 February,2012 06:41 PM IST | | PTI
The first-ever India-based Manchester United Soccer School (MUSS), which was set up last November, has started functioning inside Cooperge football ground in Mumbai from January 30 and the boys got to train on Tuesday with two legends of the famous Premier League Club.
Top MU players of yesteryears, Denis Irwin and Quinton Fortune, took part in a training session with the children of the club's Mumbai-based school on the artificial turf set up at the Cooperage ground by world football governing body FIFA.
Head coach of the MUSS in Mumbai, Chris O'Brien, told a media conference that the school would train the children in exactly the same way as MU Academy does in its home base in the UK.
"The training these kids would receive will be identical to what children undergo in the Manchester United Academy. It will be a five-day in a week session and we have started with the dribbling module first (lasting five weeks). It will be a positive learning experience," O'Brien informed. "Importance will also be given to physical fitness and diet. There would also be (theory) classes. Education is as important as practical sessions," he added.
The five-week module training at the school, for which MU has joined hands with the state football body -- Western Indian Football Association (WIFA), costs Rs 12,600 each, it was learnt. Three hundred children have enrolled for the first module.
"We will identify 100 talented children (who cannot afford the fees otherwise) for year-long training," said WIFA CEO Henry Menezes on the sidelines of the conference.
