Chief minister Mamata Banerjee could soon have a date with the Brazilian world-cupper and former Barcelona star Ronaldinho.

The Calcutta-based real estate major, Merlin Group, is bringing three sporting icons and a martial arts exponent together at Eastern India’s first greenfield sports-based township to come up at Rajarhat.

Rise-Sports Republic with 2,500 flats in 10 towers—one exclusively reserved for senior citizens--- will have sports academies, two of which are expected to start by end of 2021.

Merlin Group unveiling its tie- up with internationally acclaimed Sports Icons Sourced by the correspondent

Brazilian soccer star Ronaldinho’s R10 soccer academy, which already has a presence in Bengaluru, will open a chapter in Calcutta at the township, and so will India’s own cricketing icon Yuvraj Singh.

The Shroff siblings, Tiger and Krishna, will set up a martial arts training centre and a similar facility for swimming with the legendary Olympian Michael Phelps.

The cricket and football grounds with specifications for training facilities as desired by the two icons, Ronaldinho and Yuvraj Singh, are in the final stages.

“This will be a township with everything within the same premises including school and healthcare facility. The academies will be open for all and not just residents,” said Saket Mohta, managing director Merlin Group, at the launch of the project at a city hotel.

The estimated cost of the project is around Rs 2,000 crore and expected to be ready by January 2027.

The icons associated with each of the academies are expected to be visiting Calcutta a couple of times every year.

“The coaches, trainers will be handpicked by the sporting legends as they have done with similar facilities elsewhere in the world. It is not important to see the face of either Ronaldinho or Yuvraj Singh, but follow the training module that they have designed. These are professionals and choose the best for the academies that they run,” said Mohta.

For the project, the Merlin Group has been acquiring land over a period of 14-15 years.

Apart from the sports academies, the township will also have other sporting activities for the residents to pursue like tennis and squash courts.

The Merlin Group is yet to finalise on the school and the hospital that would come up in the premises.

“The school will be affiliated to either CBSE or ICSE,” said Satyen Sanghvi, director Merlin Group.

The block of flats exclusively reserved for the senior citizen will have emergency and nursing care facilities within the tower, making it a self-sufficient unit.