Kolkata: A plethora of footballing legends are set to grace India for promotional purposes in the lead up to the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) U-17 World Cup, much like Diego Maradona and Pablo Aimar did for FIFA’s U-20 tournament draw which was held in Korea recently on March 15.
“I just came following the draw in Korea for the U-20 World Cup, and we had Maradona and Aimar with us during the draw. We are thinking of some names, who we cannot say yet as we still have time. We are thinking of bringing some of the top footballers in the history of the tournament not only for the draw but also for other activities leading up to the tournament,” FIFA’s head of events Jaime Yarza said.
“… For example the trophy tour experience, some activities with the ‘Mission XI Million’. So, there will be four to five times when we will have some of the top former players of the world visiting India,” he said after the inspection.
Yarza is currently heading an eight member delegation to inspect the six venues across the country. With less than 200 days to go for the mega-event, the eight member team kicked off an inspection of the six chosen centres in the country, starting with the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium which is situated in the country capital.
Maradona, is largely regarded as one of the greatest players in football history. Having won the U-20 World Cup in 1979 before winning the FIFA World Cup seven years later at Mexico 1986 and reaching another final four years later at Italy 1990.
While Maradona’s fellow countryman Pablo Aimar had a successful career at club level with boyhood club River Plate and Portuguese club Benfica. He represented Argentina at the highest level and had even won the FIFA U-17 World Cup back in 1997.
The upcoming edition of the FIFA U-17 World Cup is scheduled to be held in India from October 6 to 28.
(With inputs from PTI)