The shortlisted boys for the All India trials are Aniket Anil Jadhav (Kolhapur), Saurabh Meher, Manav Baraskar, Gaston D'Silva, Sameer Kashyap, Meet Jain (all Mumbai), a media release from the Western India Football Association, the governing body for the game in Maharashtra, said today.
Only those boys born in the year 2000 were eligible for the trials which were conducted state-wide at nine different locations -- Mumbai, Latur, Aurangabad, Amravati, Nagpur, Pune, Kolhapur and Solapur - before the final trials for the shortlisted candidates were conducted at the Cooperage ground here.
The preliminary work was done by the regional scouts Arashad Hussain, Ireno Vaz, Augusto D'Silva and Ryan D'Souza.
"The regional scouts have really done a wonderful job with the selection process. I'm really impressed with the quality of the boys and all of them fit the guidelines set by me for the selection process," Adam said.
"The journey was also tough on them travelling to multiple venues for almost a month is a tough ask and here I would like to thank the efforts of the State association as well to give this such a huge shape, they are taking their football seriously," he said.
"The trials were conducted in the best possible manner across the state. It was an open affair anyone who can kick a football and meet the age criteria could have taken part. This time the trials were also well publicised for amassing maximum participation. Around 1,000 kids participated in the trials, this number is really encouraging," he added.