Materazzi and his men learn the ‘machchans’ style of dribbling

The soccer league, an initiative by Gamesa India and Slum Soccer, is underway with 32 teams from 13 cities across the country fighting for top honours. The kids, aged between 14 to 21 had a whale of a time as the Chennaiyin FC players watched the eight-a-side, 15-minute contest in awe. 

The league has seven teams from other cities (Gudalur, Thoothukudi, Anantapur, Udumalpet, Nagpur and Kolkata) and six teams from Chennai (Mylapore, Santhome, Chromepet, Tondiarpet and Sholinganallur) participating. 

The league is played in four categories — Under 14, 18, 21 and a girls’ team. Gudalur, Anantapur and Sholinganallur have fielded an all-girls team too.

The crowd went into a frenzy as the superstars of Chennai in — goalkeeping coach Francesco Franzese, crowd favourite Bernard Mendy, Harmanjhot Khabra, Raphael Augusto, Siam Hanghal, Duwayne Kerr, local lad Nallappan Mohanraj, Davide Succi and Maurizio Peluso — arrived and took to the stage.

The whistles turned into chants of CFC and the players soaked in the atmosphere with a huge smile.

The fans went into a trance when the Chennaiyin players walked up to them and shook hands before crowd-favourite Mendy and coach Materazzi kicked footballs into the crowd for the fans to take them as souvenirs. The crowd went ballistic as fans jostled to get a hand on the footballs. The players then watched a U-21 match between Udumalpet and Kolkata in which the former triumphed 7-1.

Udumalpet team was then called on stage and the Chennaiyin FC players congratulated the winners. 

The soccer league, that emphasises on fair play, focuses on educating the players on social evils too. Two workshops, for three hours each in the morning and evening, are allocated for social skills such as gender equality, alcohol abuse, health and wellness etc. The stalwarts of the Indian Super League then walked off with the local football taste sure to linger for a very long time.