Arsene Wenger inaugurated the AIFF-Fifa Talent Academy at the Odisha Football Academy here on Tuesday.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and the Odisha government in the presence of the former Arsenal coach, currently serving as Fifa’s chief of global football development.

The Odisha government will take care of the boarding, lodging, accommodation and education of the players. Fifa will provide the technical knowledge and the coaches.

The academy will have two floodlit practice pitches, changing rooms and a residential facility for around 50 players. The first batch will get training for two years. Spain’s Sergi Amezcua Fontrodona will be the head coach for two years.

“Our project is to identify talent in India, to put the best talent together, give them a good coaching programme, give them a good education and a good level of competition and make them great players,” Wenger said.

“No country has more right than another to be at the top of the world. It’s just down to how well you educate your children.

“Our effort is to educate the children, to give them time and to get them to be as good as they can be,” he added.

“I believe India has always invested a lot in education. But football is not like any other job. Unfortunately, it starts at a very young age. You cannot start to play football at 15 years of age. You have to start at 5-6 years because you have tofind your feet. That’s what we want to do.”

Wenger inspected the academy and had only good things to say.

“We just visited the facilities, the quality of infrastructure is great. We will delegate our own coach and develop a system over the years. Hopefully, in the future, we will be rewarded if we do well. Our focus now is to get this academy first and get the first players out in three-four years who can play at the top later.”

AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey said that India can qualify for the Fifa U-17 World Cup on merit — through the players coming out of this academy.

India had featured in the Fifa Under-17 World Cup six years ago as the host country. Senior team players like Anwar Ali, Jeakson Singh, Rahul KP and Rahim Ali to name a few were part of that squad.

“Let us dream to qualify for the under-17 World Cup on merit. We must try to become one of the best in the under-17 age group and thereafter we can think of becoming one of the top countries in the world,” Chaubey said.

Odisha sports minister Tusharkanti Behera and M Satyanarayanan, the acting general secretary of the AIFF, were also present.