City Lads Adhithiyan, Macarton, Sarath, Ankit And Aaron Head To Anantapur For Zonals

Five Bengaluru FC Academy youngsters have made the cut into the squad announced by the Karnataka State Football Association (KSFA) for the qualifying rounds of the Sub-Junior National Football Championships 2017-18. Adhithiyan S, Macarton Louis Nickson, Sarath R, Ankit Prabhakaran and Aaron Joshua are part of the squad that travelled to Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh earlier today for the South Zone qualifiers.

The youngsters, all 13-years-old, train at the BFC Academy in Clarence High School Ground, Cox Town, and come from various parts of the city. While Adhithiyan is from Indira Nagar, Macartown comes from RT Nagar, Sarath from Austin Town and Aaron and Ankit reside in Cox Town.

Macarton (3 years) and Sarath (2 years) who joined the BFC Academy in 2014 and 2015 respectively, have been with the club for over two years now, and are excited with the opportunity to represent their state.

Speaking on the eve of the team’s departure, St. Joseph’s Indian High School’s Macarton said, “I feel very happy and excited to play in this tournament. I was selected last year as well but couldn’t play as I was under-age. However, I am looking forward to give my best this year. Having been with the BFC Academy for a long time now, I look up to all the first team players as role models and one day I want to be performing at the stage.”

Meanwhile, Sarath who has also been groomed the BFC Way, said, “I am excited to be part of the state team. It will help me improve a lot and I hope to perform well and get a chance to play for the national team as well. I am very lucky to have started playing football with Bengaluru FC, my hometown club and the best club in the country.”

Among the others, Adhithiyan studies at Cathedral High School, Ankit is a student of Holy Angel’s High School and Aaron is from St. Joseph’s European Boys High School.

The South Zone qualifiers which will be held from 3rd to 8th September will be played in a league-cum-knockout format with the top-two teams then progressing to the final round. Karnataka are placed in Group-A, and will face Telangana (September 5) and Tamil Nadu (September 7) in the league phase.