India cricket captain Virat Kohli has extended his best wishes to the country’s U-17 football team ahead of the FIFA World Cup encounter with Ghana.
A day after the Indian cricket team beat Australia in comprehensive fashion in Nagpur to put the seal on a 4-1 ODI series win, captain Virat Kohli has a message to the India U-17 football team.
The dashing right hand batsman said, “I would like to wish the team all the very best for the first game against USA and for the rest of the tournament as well. Go make us proud!”
Virat, who is often pictured playing a game of football during the Indian cricket team’s practice sessions, jumped onto the bandwagon to promote and help develop the beautiful game in India in 2014 with ISL franchise FC Goa.
Virat Kohli is also the co-owner of ISL football club FC Goa and can also be seen wearing the jersey of the club. Kohli himself has had some success in the age group level as he has led the Indian U-19 cricket team to the 2008 World Cup title. As per Indian Express report, he is known to be an ardent follower of football and has stated numerous times that Real Madrid and Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo is an inspiration to him.
In a 15-second video on his official Twitter handle, Kohli said, “Our U-17 boys are taking part in the U-17 FIFA World Cup which starts on October 6. Their first match is against team USA.”
“I would like to wish them all the very best for the first game and the rest of the tournament. Go, get it boys, make us proud,” he added.
The list of the 21 selected players follows below:
Goalkeepers: Dheeraj Singh, Prabhsukhan Gill, Sunny Dhaliwal
Defenders: Boris Singh, Jitendra Singh, Anwar Ali, Sanjeev Stalin, Hendry Antonay, Namit Deshpande
Midfielders: Suresh Singh, Ninthoinganba Meetei, Amarjit Singh Kiyam, Abhijit Sarkar, Komal Thatal, Lalengmawia, Jeakson Singh, Nongdamba Naorem, Rahul Kannoly Praveen, Md. Shahjahan
Forwards: Rahim Ali, Aniket Jadhav