Two boys from Kerala, Rishi Dutt and Abu Thahir have been named in the 21 member Indian under-14 national team for the first AFC Under-14 Football Championship qualifiers to be held at Iran. India are grouped together with hosts Iran, Turkmenistan, Pakistan and Kirghistan in Group D and begins their campaign against Iran on April 23, 2013. They will then play Kyrgyzstan (April 24), Pakistan (April 28) and finally Turkmenistan (April 29) at the Samen Al Aemeh Stadium in Mashhad.
Midfielder Rishi hails from Thrissur while forward Abu Thahit is from the Idukki district. Abu Thahir was noted by the selectors after becoming the top scorer in the under-14 football fest held at Kalyani last year.
The team will be coached by Narayana Menon and will also have another Malayali in the staff with physio K Vishnu joining in. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the final rounds of the AFC Championships.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Yashin and Shain Khan have been called into the under-16 national team camp for the SAFF Under-16 Cup. Former State Bank of Travancore player Feroz Sheriff has been named the goal keeping coach for the under-16s.
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Friday 19 April 2013. The database copy of this article was lost; it was recovered in 2026 from the Internet Archive's saved copy of the live page.