Country’s oldest residential football academy, the Tata Football Academy (TFA inaugurated in 1987), at Jamshedpur organised a convocation ceremony for the 15th batch on Wednesday evening.

The football academy, which has been one of the biggest feeders to the Indian national team with over 148 cadets representing the country so far and 24 cadets leading the Indian team in various international competitions, had the graduating batch consisting of 23 cadets from 11 states from across the country. So far a total of 252 cadets have graduated from TFA.

Vice-president corporate services, Tata Steel and chairman, board of management TFA, Chanakya Chaudhary said: “I would like to extend my heartiest congratulations to every member of the 2022 graduation batch, on reaching this all-important milestone. This indeed, is an affirmation of their resilience and this convocation is testimony to their grit, dedication and commitment to the discipline of sport. Sports has always been integral to Tata Steel’s philosophy of nation-building.”

Incidentally, international football stars of yesteryear like Renedy Singh, Syed Rahim Nabi, Mahesh Gawli, Clifford Miranda, Subrata Paul have all graduated from the TFA.

In the current Indian Super League (ISL) season, 21 former cadets of TFA are playing for different clubs. Former cadets, Deepak Mandal and Subrata Paul, have been conferred with Arjuna Award. Adding another feather in its cap in 2019, TFA upgraded to four-star accreditation rating by The All India Football Federation (AIFF).

The prestigious club has already been awarded for “Continuous Contributions to Indian Football”. Such recognition has been conferred for the first time to any institution by the AIFF. TFA has also been awarded “The Hall of Fame — Youth Development Award” for its contribution to Indian football by Global Soccer Conclave in its virtual event.

In 2017, Tata Steel successfully won a bid to introduce their team in the ISL. Thus, Jamshedpur FC came into existence. In addition, the academy struck a partnership with LaLiga giants Atletico Madrid in 2018 to boost their youth and grassroots development. Since 2019, Spaniard Carlos Santamarina is the head coach at the academy. The objective of the Academy is to select, nurture and prepare budding footballers from across the country in the most scientific way.