Volunteers from Germany all praise for football talent at YFC

Avneet Kaur

Jalandhar, February 15

Youth Football Club (YFC) Rurka Kalan, under the Indo-German volunteer exchange programme, is hosting four volunteers from Germany who are assisting local players in football training.

Besides, the volunteers are also engaged in organising various workshops at the village level to share cross-cultural traditions to make people aware of personal hygiene and personality development.

The four volunteers — Paula Roschie, David Steffens, Linus Pethes and Nicola Fremerey — are in the age group of 19 and 20 years. “Before coming here, I had no idea about Indian football or culture,” Paula told The Tribune.

“I am really surprised with what I have seen here. I am really impressed by the YFC. Besides solid structure, the club has a good team and a great vision,” she added.

They are impressed with facilities and football culture at the YFC. The German volunteers said a club or an organisation alone could not bring a change at a national level.

“The structure at the YFC is similar to a good youth club in Germany, but the problem is that it is the only one,” said Paula, while adding that it is imperative to have more girls taking up football as a sport.

Other volunteers, sharing their experiences, said, “We loved the hospitality of the people of Punjab, the colourful clothes of people and the talent in the village.”

They further added that India needed to work upon the issues of poverty, gender discrimination, women empowerment and pollution in order to emerge as one of the powerful nations.

They said in the workshops organised by them in the village, they experienced that females were not so open to their male counterpart. Also, very less attention is being paid to personal hygiene, thus, regular counseling to people must be provided, they added.

Talking to The Tribune, Gurmangal Das, managing director, YFC, said, “Every year under the foreign exchange programmes, we provide an opportunity to our players to learn and interact with foreign players.” 

He said their player Jaspreet Kaur had also been one among the six facilitators selected by the FIFA Foundation Organisation from all over the world as a coach to impart training to youth players selected by FIFA.

Das said besides inviting foreign volunteers here, they also send their volunteers to foreign nations to experience the foreign culture and learn more technical techniques of football.

“Apart from trainings and organising awareness workshops, the YFC is also running a free physiotherapy center, a special children center and computer training center. It has collaborated with various international organizations, including Carolina Rail Hawks FC North Carolina, USA; and Street Football World, Germany,” the coach added.