Bundesliga side TSG Hoffenheim to tour India

India is again set to get a taste of German football as Bundesliga top-tier club TSG Hoffenheim will be criss-crossing the country from May 12-18 as part of a season-ending tour.
The team, which finished ninth in the Bundesliga season gone by, will visit Aizawl, Kolkata and Goa.
TSG 1899 Hoffenheim will travel to Aizawl to take on the Santosh Trophy winning Mizoram state team in an exhibition match on May 13. The exhibition match will be played under floodlights at the Lammual Stadium.
The visiting team will also conduct football clinics for children in the three cities during the one-week long India tour. The Bundesliga and German multinational software corporation SAP are the Presenting Partners of TSG 1899 Hoffenheim's 2014 India Tour.

Alexander Rosen, Sports Director, TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, said: "We are pleased to commence this journey as an international ambassador for the Bundesliga and to step up sustainable and socially relevant projects. Our young team will gain new important cultural and social experiences."
This is the second Bundesliga side to set foot on Indian shores in recent years after European giants Bayern Munich visited the country twice. In 2008, Bayern came to India for former Germany captain Oliver Kahn's farewell match in Kolkata. Four years later, Bayern travelled to the capital for then Indian captain Bhaichung Bhutia's farewell match.

The tour organised by Switzerland-based Adamant Sports will be TSG 1899 Hoffenheim's first visit to India and it will be a new milestone in the Bundesliga and Indian football.

Mizoram Football Association secretary Lalnghinglova Hmar said, "It's the biggest football match happening in the state. Everyone in the state, not only the football fans, are looking forward to Hoffenheim's arrival in our state."
"We would like to thank the Bundesliga, Hoffenheim and Adamant Sports for thinking about us to play a match in India.
"We at Mizoram Football Association are honoured and will field the best possible Mizoram XI to face Hoffenheim at the Lammual Stadium in Aizawl.