Odisha FC’s Assistant Coach and Head of Football Development Kino Garcia is impressed with the three youth team graduates –Deven Sawhney, Akshunna Tyagi and CVL Remtluanga (Chhangte junior) – who have made it to the senior team ahead of the upcoming eighth season of the Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL). In a short interview with the OFC Media Team, Coach Kino highlighted the good work done by the Club’s youth set-up as well.

“I think the talks about the good job that the people at Odisha FC are doing in the youth categories, of course, we want to make it better, we want to involve the community of Odisha in the next seasons. When the covid situation gets better, we can start the academy process in Odisha, but it's quite good news for us. They are different players, they really are motivated, they really want to learn, they are in the stage of their football career that they need to learn, they need to improve and they need to work hard because this kind of opportunity you have to take it,” the Spaniard mentioned.
 

Views on Deven:

Deven adapted quite well to the system that we are trying to make in the team. He is left-back and left-footed. That is something that we don't have much with the players in India. He is also fast and can go back. We need a full-back who can attack and can defend. He needs to improve in some aspects like defending or body positioning or some tactical aspects. He is learning quite fast. In attack, he is fast and he has really good technique. He is left-footed and I think that's quite valuable. In this situation, we have to think that we have only Sahil and Javi the left-footed players that we have in the team.

Views on Akshunna:

Akshunna is a powerful striker. He fights for every ball, he has good accuracy for finishing. He needs to be calm in some situations of the game but it's normal because of his age. He always tries to improve, he is hardworking in the training sessions with a good attitude with the staff. He needs to improve some movements to find good opportunities. He has good conditions physically. He has a good future and really a good addition to the squad.

Views on Chhangte Jr:

I think that he surprised us in the pre-season. In the beginning, he started slowly but step by step, he improved and he got confidence. He has qualities that coaches want in a player in the side. He usually can play right or left-winger and he is really fast. He is good at defending and has a good attitude. He has a good action in one on one situations. He needs to improve in some aspects like when to cross, when to dribble and when to do some actions. Knowing his family career in football, we think that he can really make it big.

Message for all three:

Guys! train hard, push hard, take this opportunity, fight for it every day in the training sessions and of course, be patient. When you arrive at this level of football, you need to train hard and be patient. With the qualities they have and the human being they are, we are sure that we will have success. But these are long-term career, they don't have to think only for the present but for their tomorrow as well.

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