They are five former India international footballers and all of them are from Kerala. CK Vineeth, Rino Anto, NP Pradeep, Mohammed Rafi, and Anas Edathodika have been on a unique mission to groom footballers for the future. This five-man-army is equally supported by the former Indian hockey captain PR Sreejesh and a former India international volleyball player Tom Joseph.

The project comprises scouting and grooming of potential tribal footballers across the country. It has also an inside story. 

Both NP Pradeep and Rino Anto echoed same opinion, “While going into the venture we found the people living in tribal areas in our state are not being able to lead normal life. The acute financial crisis is the key factor. They were going through hard days and struggling to lead normal life.

He added, “They were not going to schools. They had distracted life.” Our thought was to make an effort to bring those young boys to normal life through football. We are happy to see that today, since our initiative began in November 2022, several tribal boys are joining our tribal football schools and we can even mention a few names like Vijeesh, the 12-year-old boy who has been progressing noticeably.”

Initiated mainly by Rino Anto and CK Vineeth 13th Foundation was introduced in November 2022. Under the leadership of the foundation, they introduced two tribal academies in Attapadi and Thirunelli along with other five academies for general boys. The two tribal academies are being run free of cost while the five other academies in the state are paid projects.

The five-man army now has planned to scout and nurture more boys, young and potential from the tribal areas across the country. The footballers have bought a Mahindra Scorpio and will travel 50 thousand kilometers across the country. 

It will be a four-month trip. They have planned to start on 1st February from Kochi. The journey is named ‘Soccer-Safari’. They will be traveling from Kashmir to Kanyakumarika, from North-East states via Bengal to Gujarat in search of potential kids from tribal areas.

Pradeep revealed, “We noticed in our two tribal academies that the boys from that community have more power, speed, and stamina compared to the urban boys generally. Then we decided to start our other centers with tribal boys."

Rino also divulged, “We are talking to different corporate houses. Simultaneously, on behalf of the Thirteenth Foundation, we have submitted a proposal for the construction of a sports village where the kids of other games like hockey and volleyball will be nurtured. Initially, we want to start with 60 boys between the ages of under-10 and under-14.” 

He added, "These boys' development will be monitored properly before promoting them towards the next level of training." Sunil Chhetri inaugurated the academy of Thirteenth Foundation.