Peter Wenninger and Mathias Nowak at iLEAD

iLEAD in association with German Football Academy hosted its first ever Football Conclave. Present at the conclave was the who's who of football fraternity with interactions, deliberations, discussions and the intent to take relevant steps and make India a global footballing nation. German Football Academy (GFA), an initiative of Germinati Sports Pvt Ltd, focuses on the introduction and development of Football from grassroots to the professional level.

The panelists were Mathias Nowak, an outstanding technical and creative football trainer who has worked with FC Bayern Munchen Women's U17 & Senior's Team and guided them to victory at German Bundesliga Championship; Peter Wenninger who is currently the Youth Head Trainer at FC Bayern Munich and a pioneer in hosting workshops worldwide for training and development of Football, Shaji Prabhakaran who has managed domestic and international projects like FIFA World Cup and Ratan Postwala, Partner and Co-Founder, People's Trust and Krish Roy, the co-founder of German Football Academy. Mr Cherojit Goswami, the legend from the world of advertising and the Vice President of Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide was the moderator for the event.

iLEAD chairman Mr Pradip Chopra addressed the audience with examples of visionaries from history who accomplished their life goals and the importance of focusing on one great life goal. Resonating with views Shaji Prabhakaran spoke about the importance of action over words and how children are brought up in the Indian society, the huge population India with an unfortunate amount of sports sensations and lack of infrastructure.

The 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup is 17th edition of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the U17 national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament will be hosted by India between 6th and 28th of October 2017. In that note everyone in the audience was given a task to find out and support the players representing India on social media and garner more and more interest among everyone. Krish Roy spoke about the origins of Germinati Sports, his meeting with Mathias, creation of a sporting eco system. Ratan Postwala, Partner and Co-Founder, People's Trust deals with performance management and sports management and spoke about Role, Respect, Recognition and Remuneration of every personnel associated with a sporting establishment and how the sports infrastructure in the country should take lessons from the successful corporate houses in performance and people management. To the amazement of the crowd Jamshid Nassiri a retired Iranian football player who is now a coach was present in the audience. He was called to the stage to give insightful views. Mathias Nowak spoke about the importance of training, mental awareness and the importance of being a team player. He refused judgmental comments on the Football scene in the city based on his short visit but spoke highly about the energy and enthusiasm of the young crowd. Peter Wenninger gave his insights on the importance of hard work and the correct mindset. Some more inputs at the session which the audience took note of were the importance of self-assessment and having a Plan B for career in case sports does not work out, need for more playgrounds and safe environments.

With valuable advice to the crowd, the dignitaries with great praises for the campus and the new iLEAD Sports Complex concluded the conclave with great hopes and plans for collaborations.