Spanish football club Atletico Madrid has entered into a partnership with India’s Tata Football Academy (TFA), as was announced on Wednesday.
The Jamshedpur-based TFA would now be renamed as the Tata Atletico Football Academia in what is the La Liga club’s second foray into Indian football. As part of this partnership, Atletico Madrid would support the TFA by providing them with technical staff. Experts from the Spanish club would pay visits to TFA from time to time wherein they would provide the Indian academy with guidance regarding the recruitment of players, facility management, video analysis and physiotherapy.
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Atletico Madrid had earlier made its impact in Indian football felt with a partnership with the then Indian Super League (ISL) franchise Atletico De Kolkata (now known as ATK) in 2014. The bond between them lasted for three seasons wherein the Spanish club had played a crucial role in recruiting the coaching staff and foreign signings. ATK won the title two three times in the first three seasons of the tournament.
But soon differences arose between the club and Kolkata Games and Sports Pvt. Ltd and the partnership between them saw an end before the 2017-18 ISL season began. The 25 per cent stake held by the Madrid club was purchased by the franchise’s principal owner Sanjiv Goenka.