Legendary goalkeeper Subrata Paul felicitates Zinc Football Academy’s India U-17 SAFF star Sahil Poonia

Sahil Poonia created history for Zinc Football Academy recently, when he became the first player from the institution to represent India at international level. To celebrate his success, the academy invited former India football team captain Subrata Paul. The legendary goalkeeper invited the academy (located near Udaipur) on Saturday as chief guest to felicitate 16-year-old Poonia and other budding players of the Hindustan Zinc-founded academy.

Speaking at the ceremony, Subrata said, “It has been a wonderful experience to visit Zinc Football and meet all the talented young footballers here. The facilities and infrastructure along with education that Hindustan Zinc is providing is really remarkable and being from an academy background, it is so great to see for me at a personal level. I wish the boys all the best and want them to reach even greater heights than what I did.”

Poonia, who is a goalkeeper, won the best goalkeeper award on his international debut tournament, featuring for India in the SAFF U-17 Championship held in Sri Lanka. The youngster, who is the son of a farmer from Haryana, also played in the 2023 AFC U-17 Asian Cup Qualifiers in Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, Arun Misra, who is the CEO of Hindustan Zinc, called it an ‘incredible moment’ and lavished praise on Poonia. “It is an incredibly proud moment for us to felicitate our Zinc Football Academy players for their remarkable achievements. While Sahil Poonia has set the bar high by representing the India Under-17 team at the highest level, a few other players have come out with excellent academic results in their board exams, further exhibiting the holistic approach of our student-athlete model at Zinc Football”, he said.

The ceremony also saw players being felicitated for their excellent board results. Meanwhile, another player Sonu Haardu was acknowledged for his performance at the National Khelo India camp, where he was given the Top Athlete award. After felicitation, the ceremony also saw the unveiling of Hindustan Zinc’s new brand identity and logo.