Minerva Academy star Thouthang to train with Manchester United

The academy has the reputation of producing some of the best footballers in India.

Minerva Academy star Thouthang has won a chance in a lifetime to train with Manchester United later this year. The teenager was able to win this unreal opportunity after excelling in the Apollo Tyres United We Play competition.

The third edition of this competition kick-started last year around the early December period, when the Qatar World Cup was going on. Back then, Manchester United’s first-team stars David de Gea, Donny van de Beek and Anthony Elanga travelled to Goa to personally inaugurate the trials.

Who else is going to Manchester as part of Apollo Tyres programme?

As part of this grassroots football campaign, around 8,000-10,000 young footballers from around India were selected to take part in a trial program where Apollo Tyres associated with Manchester United. Thouthang is not the only teenager to get this opportunity either.

He will join FC Goa teenager Aaryav Da Costa, who also won this opportunity after emerging as one of the four winners of the ‘United We Play’ trials. Thouthang and Costa will be travelling to Manchester later this year to get some valuable experience in which they’ll get to know more about the state-of-the-art training facilities at United and some valuable education from their coaches.

The two will be getting an opportunity to watch the Red Devils play at Old Trafford for a match-day experience. They will also get an exclusive training session with United’s Soccer School coaches and also a chance to interact with United’s club legends and get some valuable experience on how to succeed as a professional footballer.

Thouthang adds to Minerva's rich history of producing major talents

Thouthang is the latest major talent to be unearthed from Minerva Academy. The club has earned the reputation for being a benchmark for football academies in the country and has given the spotlight to multiple Indian national team stars over the past.

Indeed, some of the major names to have come through the Minerva Academy include the likes of Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Manvir Singh, Anirudh Thapa, Jeakson Singh and Sandesh Jhingan.

The latest breakthrough talent to have come from the academy is none other than Anwar Ali, who has established himself as an Indian national regular recently and been one of the best defenders in Indian football over the last year or so.

For young Thouthang, however, there is still a long road ahead before he can aspire to play for the Blue Tigers. He will need to use his experience of working with Manchester United’s coaches and develop his skills thoroughly to play for India’s youth teams – before he can dream of playing for the senior national team towards the end of this decade.