BANGALORE: Italian giants Inter Milan are all set to start their first academy in Asia in Hosur, near here, in May.

The club is planning to make it a grand entry with their top stars including Argentine Javier Zanetti and club president Erick Thohir expected for the launch.

"Outside Italy, Inter has football academies only in USA & Japan and now in India. Each international academy project is unique and it is organized with respect of the local reality both on a technical as well as a social level.

The standard of coaching, the intensity of the course, are all similar and along the lines expected from Inter youth academy. The residential academy is free for the kids who are identified to join the academy, So it's on merit of talent. The soccer schools will have a charge attached to it which will be at par with the market," Marco Monti, technical director of Inter's academy projects told TOI, via e-mail.

"The launch is expected to be in end of May 2014. Mr Thohir is very much excited about Inter developing a permanent presence in India and is currently scheduled to join us at the launch. We have some legends of Inter also coming down for the launch such as Zanetti & few more," he said.

" Andrea Ratti , our youth coach, has been assigned with the task of heading the Inter Academy in India . Andrea has worked with youth academies across the world and brings the inter expertise and technology to India. We are also putting in place our advanced scientific software to help identify talent as well as monitor them on an ongoing basis," Monti said.

The top official said the new facility can train nearly 200 kids. "Over the last year we have been working on identifying and developing a residential academy in South India. We finally narrowed down on a location, near Hosur.

The academy is equipped with two football pitches with a stand for spectators and changing rooms, indoor arena with three five-a-side courts (synthetic turf), athletic field, gym, changing rooms, residential facility for upto 200 academy kids plus 250 guests/camps attendees. A beautiful place with world class infrastructure," he added.

Monti said trials are already under way at different locations. "The primary objective of Inter's presence in India is to develop grassroots level football in India. Trials are already under way on a formal and informal basis.

I and my senior team of coaches are right now in India, traveling across states to assess available support staff and talent. We are planning a tournament/ talent hunt in May to further identify talent," Monti said.