STAIRS and German Embassy comes together for Football Organizes special Football training session

Society for Transformation, Inclusion and Recognition through Sports (STAIRS) and the German Embassy today organised a special football training session for around 100 children from Delhi NCR (50 boys and 50 girls) at Thyagraj Stadium, New Delhi. His Excellency Deputy Ambassador Dr Jasper Wieck (Deputy Ambassador of the German Embassy and Head of the Department for Economic and Global Affairs, graced the occasion as the Chief Guest. Also present on the occasion were along Mr R K Jain, Group President (Corp. F&A) at Uflex Ltd. and Mr Siddhartha Upadhyay, Founder & Secretary General STAIRS and Governing Body Member of Sports Authority of India.

The football training session focused on providing a fun and valuable experience for the footballers who are passionate about the game of football but do not have access to adequate infrastructure and training opportunities. These children were selected from the scouting done under Uflex STAIRS School Football League program.

The training session was spearheaded by Paulo Pedro, who is the Technical Director at STAIRS Football Academy and is a certified UEFA A coach. He made the participating children and budding footballers familiar with various professional tactics including nitty-gritty of the game and special dribbling, turning, shooting and other techniques.

Speaking on the occasion, His Excellency Deputy Ambassador Dr Jasper Wieck, Deputy Ambassador of the German Embassy and Head of the Department for Economic and Global Affairs said, "I have learnt that STAIRS is doing a great work in the development of sports in the country and SSFL is one of the biggest and the most promising talent spotting and training platforms in India. There is no dearth of talent, as was evident in today’s training session, I believe the right guidance and professional coaching at a young age can help in nurturing the talent that can potentially bring laurels to the country. Interacting with Team Stairs and engagement with the players was a great experience for us."

Talking about the initiative, Mr Siddhartha Upadhyay, Founder & Secretary General STAIRS and Governing Body Member of Sports Authority of India said, "I am grateful to German Missions in India for recognizing our work, and I would like to thank His Excellency Deputy Ambassador Dr Jasper Wieck for taking out time from his busy schedule and joining us in today’s football training session and interacting with the budding players. STAIRS is credited for establishing Uflex Stairs School Football League as the world’s biggest football talent scouting and training programme, an initiative that has caught the attention of the entire sports fraternity for being a promising platform for talented footballers at the grassroots. Germany has a great footballing culture, and our aim is to match its footballing culture as well as the skill level. I believe that such initiatives will give a substantial boost to our efforts. STAIRS further aim to conduct similar football training sessions across India with the aim to promote the sport by engaging more children and identifying talented players and nurture them through focused training programs."

Much to the delight of the kids, they all were presented with a football each by Deputy Ambassador Dr. Jasper Wieck, after the training session. STAIRS is currently the largest organisation that ensures youth development through sports. With the focus on achieving Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs) through sports, over 300,000 children play – free of cost – ‘every day’ at 400 STAIRS Training Centres in over 4,000 villages across seven states in India.

I am a sports man and playing here grassroots sport and also work for sport development of our country.