More Than Just A Game! - Kalinga Utd FC

“Based in Kalinga Vihar, BBSR, we studied in St. Arnold School. We used to play football together in school, and in 2015, we decided to form our own club. That was how Kalinga United Football Club came into being. At first, we were a group of 10-11 members, and we started playing in local tournaments. As the club began to grow, people started joining us, and now there are 30 of us in the club.

We have a senior team and a junior team. Earlier, we used to send a single team to the tournaments, but now we send both of our teams. We try to give more chances to the junior players and we play together whenever we practice so that they get more exposure. The senior members manage the club, and also train the juniors.

We had gone to the semi-finals of the Neymar Jr’s Five, organized by Red Bull. We’ve participated in a lot of other minor tournaments, and a lot of people in this town recognize our club. When we started, we had never thought that we could get this kind of appreciation when we go for tournaments, but it makes us really happy when people recognize the club by its members.

We’ve been through a lot of tough times as well. When this club didn’t exist, we, as kids, wanted to play with the seniors and participate in competitions, but there was not one who took us into their team, or gave us any guidance. We don’t want that to happen to our juniors, and that’s what our club is for.

In our school days, when our principal got changed, he did not allow us to play football in the school field anymore. At that time, we had nowhere to play at, and while searching in our locality, we found a small abandoned field that was full of bushes and shrubs. We cleaned that entire field, and made it our own. We play all of our home matches there, and last year we also organized a tournament there.

We want to keep this club alive for many more generations, and we hope that people will keep supporting, and joining our club. We hope to play better, and win many more things for the pride of our beloved club.” – Kalinga Utd. F.C.