KOLKATA: Indian footballer Arka Dey, 16, takes part in a training session here recently. Two poor Indian teenagers, one the son of a sex worker and the other a street vendor, are among young players chosen to take part in a Manchester United Football Club KOLKATA, Mar 16 (AFP): Two poor Indian teenagers, one the son of a sex worker and the other a street vendor, are among young players chosen to take part in a Manchester United Football Club training camp.
Rajib Boy, whose mother earns 200 rupees (three dollars) a day, said he was dreaming big after being selected to travel to Britain next month for the Manchester United Soccer School after a talent hunt.
"Cristiano Ronaldo is my idol. I am focusing on scoring goals," Rajib said in Sonagachi, the red-light district in India's eastern city of Kolkata, where he lives with his mother in a one-room home in a run-down building.
Often derided because of his mother's work, the 16-year-old said he was too focused on training hard at his local Kolkata school to care what others thought.
"I am not ashamed of being a sex worker's son. She is my main source of inspiration. (But) I want to take her out of the red light district as early as possible," Rajib told AFP recently.
"Every day I am visiting a temple of (Hindu god) Lord Shiva to pray for my son's success," his mother said.
Rajib was one of 11 teenagers chosen in February to take part in the one-off training camp, following a nationwide talent hunt for trials held by club coaches in the seaside state of Goa in the cricket-mad country.
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