I-League club Sreenidi Deccan FC (SDFC) has inked a technical partnership deal with Portuguese giants Sport Lisboa e Benfica aiming to provide training, using SL Benfica’s methodology, for young athletes in the age group of six to 18 years.
This is the first time in its history that SL Benfica has secured a long-term agreement with an Indian partner, recognizing India’s peripheral importance in the Asian football market.
Representatives of SL Benfica were at a press conference in Hyderabad to announce the kick-off of another technical cooperation to be developed in the city.
The event was also marked by the inauguration of Sreenidi Deccan FC’s new football stadium, the second club in India to have its own stadium. The partner club also has a training center with accommodation for around a hundred players from the football school and youth teams at U-13, U-15, U-17, U-19 and B level.
With this partnership, the club hopes to contribute to the regional development of Indian athletes within the scope of the SL Benfica methodology and also to a new generation of “Made in Benfica” footballers in the most populous country in the world, where football will certainly grow exponentially in the coming years.
Representing SL Benfica, Miguel Reis, SLB’s global expansion coordinator, highlighted the regional importance of this partnership and said that the Club is committed to opening regional training and athlete development centers in various countries, stressing that Benfica had to be in India.
In his speech, Davide Gomes, coordinator of SLB’s international projects, said: “The results of the presence of SLB coaches, regardless of the regional context, can never be immediate because we can’t anticipate the time factor in the age of the athletes and the knowledge and experience they acquire during their training. We are going to start a long-term training process, working with all ages, together with local coaches, under the supervision of our coordinator, Luís Figueiredo. We are getting to know the country and identifying its specific context, so that we can contribute to the growth of football in India. Sreenidi is a club that already has two U-17 players in the national team and we aspire to increase this representation with our help.”
“This is a big milestone in a journey we began in 2015. It reaffirms our commitment to the continued development of football in India and Telangana. By aligning with a brand as big as SL Benfica, we hope to carry on the Sreenidhi legacy of excellence,” Sreenidhi Educational Group chairman Dr KT Mahhe said.
The SLB delegation also met with the All India Football Federation president Kalyan Chaubey, sharing ideas about the Portuguese model and how SL Benfica can contribute and help the development of football in India by sharing knowledge, using the partnership model it is implementing with Sreenidi.
