Kerala Blasters FC’s head of youth development Tomasz Tchorz has stated that the club’s senior team’s head coach Ivan Vukomanovic has shown active interest in scouting players from the club’s youth team.
The Kerala Blasters’ youth development team finished second in the RFDL league stage and qualified for the Next Gen Cup to be held in the United Kingdom.
Tchorz spoke to the RFDL media team and informed that Vukomanovic followed the league while on vacation and was impressed at how well it was organized.
Furthermore, Vukomanovic is already said to have started looking at some of the youth players as potential first team options in the Indian Super League.
At least four players born after 2002 are allowed to be kept in an ISL squad. Apart from Givson Singh, no other player in the current squad fulfils the criteria for Kerala Blasters, so there is a big opportunity for players in the RFDL side to make it to the senior team.
“Coach Ivan Vukomanovic is impressed very much by the organization, by the quality of games, by the performance of our team, and he is also looking for players who might join the pre-season for the next campaign of the Hero ISL, because as you now four players born in or after 2002 have to be part of the squad. And in our (KBFC’s) case, we have a lot of talents from last season that were born in 2001,” said Tomasz Tchorz, during an interview with the RFDL Media Team.
“We provided for young people, the highest number of minutes they played in the league. But now, it will be a different story because for the existing squad, if I’m not wrong, it was only Givson who was born in 2002. We still need at least three players that we can promote in the next season. That is why they are watching our games closely,” added Tchorz.
The Blasters finished fourth in the league standings at the end of 20 games in what was a closely contested spot with Mumbai City FC.
They then went on to beat the top side in the league phase Jamshedpur FC 2-1 over two legs before facing and losing 3-1 on penalties to Hyderabad FC in the final of the Indian Super League’s 2021-22 season.
