Rohan is 16 years old and from India. He has recently enrolled at Ellesmere College as a boarder and started his first term there. Rohan chose Ellesmere College because of the opportunities that the IHM Football Academy there, offered him. He has been training and playing there under the leadership and guidance of Head Coach, David Raven ever since.
So far, Rohan has trained almost daily with the IHM at Ellesmere College squad, with his academy coaching being conveniently delivered on campus and fitting around his school timetable. Rohan is enjoying being involved in the academy life and has already played in the first two league fixtures. The squad have entered the Shropshire League u19s this season and have currently made a great start, winning both of their matches to date.
Rohan has set no limits to what he wishes to achieve whilst with IHM. He wants to go as far as he can. One frustration of Rohan’s playing back home has been the limited opportunity to progress professionally as a player. He is here in the UK now because he knows that he has many more opportunities than in his home country:
“I’m here to get to the top, I guess. You know, I want to play football professionally. It’s been a dream of mine to play professionally. Over in India we don’t have much opportunity. Over here it must be better.”
It was Rohan’s dad who first heard about IHM Football Academy and about the young players who were getting scouted as a result of being with us.
Rohan was interviewed by IHM Director of Football, Mick Brennan, at the start of his second training session. Head Coach, David Raven, was putting the young players through their paces as he strove to start to build their fitness, strength and stamina in the pre-season. This hard work will pay off as the season progresses as the players start to see and feel the benefits of laying down such a good physical foundation for the year ahead.
Rohan goes onto describe the differences between training and playing football back home in India and his situation now at IHM at Ellesmere College. He talks about the wider tactical awareness enjoyed by UK teams:
“In India, it’s more about just shooting the ball from the half way line. But here I’ve seen people use more technique, more passing, just using their vision more. So yeah, I think the football’s better over here.”
Rohan does demonstrate the drive and determination required in order to compete for a place with the very best teams when he talks about his football ambitions:
“I want to make it to the top. That’s my aim. and I’m going to give it 100%”.
