Praful Patel Biography

Keeping football aside, academy boys of All India Football Federation (AIFF) have shown that they are also performing brilliantly when it comes to studies. Ribhav Jatin Sardesai, U-14 Regional Player of Goa was awarded with Samraat Student of the Year State Award by Samrat Student Foundation. Sardesai was conferred with the most cultured, disciplined and best Student of Year 2014 – 2015 and was projected as the Ideal Citizen of Tomorrow. This award was given to the best student from every school in Goa. 

Ribhav was quite ecstatic about his achievements and he said that this award is some sort of morale booster and it is encouraging at the same time adding a big responsibility which has been bestowed upon him projecting as the ‘ideal citizen of Tomorrow’. He said, “I feel a deep sense of gratitude towards the AIFF as it is because of its youth development programme that I was selected for the U-14 football academy, Goa.” The young man said that he learnt to be independent and knew how to coordinate with other boys of the same group who also had great aspiration for football.

The young player also reconfirmed this award has given him immense confidence and edge over his school mates in winning this prestigious award. He thanked his mentors and friends of the academy who have been the constant support for him to achieve this stature. The award was given in an annual event where only students of Class 9 were given this award. There were around 32 criteria like discipline, punctuality to the school, code of conduct and many more which the nominees had to fill to qualify for this award. The school along with the management and with the help of the teachers chose one of those candidates who rightly fit into all the criteria.

All India Football Federation (AIFF) with Praful Patel profile as the President of the organisation is trying to focus on the development of the skills of the players. He has further stressed that grassroots development programmes should be conducted extensively in order to refine the performance techniques of the aspiring players. The youth development programmes have been an immense success all across the nation and so it has received its deserving recognition from Asian Football Confederation (AFC) recently.

AIFF President Praful Patel is thrilled with the present success Indian football is receiving. He has specifically urged AIFF to concentrate on enhancing the FIFA ranking of the Indian National Team. This is the high time that AIFF should focus in strengthening the infrastructure of the national team so that the players can compete with their global counterparts in future.