Footie First – Winners of MDFA 3rd Division

After going under the radar for most of the season, Footie First FC, our senior team, was crowned champions of Mumbai District Football Association’s (MDFA’s) 3rd Division. While some may say ‘it’s only the 3rd Division’, those familiar with the MDFA leagues will appreciate the magnitude of the achievement.

What’s made this triumph even more special is the fact that it has come barely a year after setting up the team. The initiative to set up our senior team was led by our coach, Ajendra Tripathi, who did the hard work of registering the team, recruiting players for a completely unknown team and training them regularly back in 2017. Despite starting last season promisingly, we were unable to qualify for the playoff stage.

Having learned from our previous experience, Ajendra maintained the core of the squad and handpicked new players for key positions while some of our coaches also volunteered to add their experience to the squad. This mix of exuberant youth, quality additions and experience from coaches Judon and Siddhesh proved to be too much for most teams to handle.

Our Technical Director, Mr Surender Kumar’s guidance was instrumental in improving the team’s discipline and training intensity – critical ingredients for success at any level. As a result, over the course of the 2018 season, Footie First FC scored 24 goals, conceded a miserly 3 goals and kept 10 clean sheets across 13 matches.

Overcoming the challenge of 96 teams and winning the league has been one of our greatest achievements on the pitch so far. But our focus as an academy still remains very firmly on sharing our love for football with children, challenging them to improve and making them better citizens along the way. Making moments like these to cherish is a massive bonus!

You can read about the pulsating final against Sanpada FC here.

Or watch a replay of the final below: