Football greats to visit India ahead of U-17 World Cup

Team Udayavani, Mar 23, 2017, 10:40 AM IST

New Delhi: Football legends will be visiting India for promotional purposes in the lead-up to the U-17 World Cup, much like Diego Maradona and Pablo Aimar did for FIFA’s U-20 tournament draw in Korea recently.

Argentine great Maradona and Aimar participated in the draw for the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Korea 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 today.

Yarza is heading an eight-member delegation to inspect the six venues across the country. Today, they inspected the capital’s Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

“… 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.

Maradona, one of the greatest players in football history, 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.

Aimar won the U-17 World Cup in 1997.

The upcoming edition of the mega-event is scheduled to be held in India from October 6 to 28.