Parallel Sports revealed the news in July that legendary coach Arsene Wenger will be coming to India after September this year. 

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) announced on Saturday that the former Arsenal coach and currently the FIFA Chief of Global Football Development  is all set to visit India in the second week of October to finalise the setting-up of a central academy in India jointly with the AIFF, according to Federation President Mr Kalyan Chaubey.

Mr Chaubey and AIFF secretary Shaji Prabhakaran had a meeting with Mr Wenger, Mr Steven Martens, Technical Director, FIFA, and Mr Ulf Schott, Head of High-Performance Programmes, FIFA, in Sydney, Australia, on 19th August to decide on the collaboration between the FIFA and the AIFF to launch an academy for U-13 boys and girls, the name of which will be finalised later.

Mr Chaubey said after the meeting, “I am glad to say that we are on the verge of setting up a state-of-the-art centralised academy in India along with FIFA. Mr Wenger will be playing a key role in the whole setup. I am sure that his experience and our industriousness can help us set the ball rolling for India to produce future stars. Finally, our project diamond is taking shape as envisioned in our strategic roadmap, Vision 2047.”

Mr Chaubey also said: “The U-13 Youth League and Sub-Junior National Championships will play an important role in spotting talents and setting up the academies.”