Coach Dennerby impressed by India U-17 girls' hard work during lockdown

Currently in Yresö (Tyresö) 25 km southeast of Stockholm city in Sweden, head coach Thomas Dennerby conducted an online video meeting with the players and support staff.

India women's U-17 national team pose for a photo before kick-off

Thomas Dennerby, head coach of the India U-17 women's national team, praised the efforts put in by his charges during the lockdown period. Currently in Yresö (Tyresö), 25km southeast of Stockholm city in Sweden, conducted an online video meeting with the players and support staff on Tuesday.

"The girls already had a very detailed fitness program which was provided to them earlier. They report to Per (Karlsson, the team's fitness coach) and all other staff also follows. I follow the daily reports on a special WhatsApp group and we can see that the girls work very hard. I'm really impressed," Dennerby said.

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Dennerby spoke with his players over video conferencing in order to “encourage” them and also conducted one with his staff in order to strategise the webinars and modules for the coming weeks.

"With the players, it was more a social relationship meeting. Just saying hello and encouraging everyone to keep on training hard," said the Swedish coach, who has previously led the senior national women's teams of Sweden and Nigeria at the FIFA Women's World Cup.

"I told them to keep on training with focus, follow the fitness program they have and to report to the staff about what they do every day. Also, I asked them to stay calm and not worry about missing training sessions,” he added.

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The FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup 2020 was scheduled to take place in India from in November across five cities -- Bhubaneshwar, Kolkata, Guwahati, Ahmedabad and Navi Mumbai. However, it has been postponed following a decision by the FIFA Confederations working group because of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic across the world, and the LOC, AIFF and FIFA are working on finalising future dates for the tournament.

- AIFF president encourages all to ‘keep up the good work’ -

AIFF president Praful Patel joined all national team coaches via a video conference to understand the sustainability of development of various age groups during the lockdown phase, and also their well-being.

Lauding the coaches for doing a “great job,” he said, “There’s a huge amount of work going on at the age-group level, and all of that is our constant effort to bring in a big change in India’s football culture. India is a big country with a lot of limitations but our effort is to continue on the process for laying a strong foundation for the future of Indian football teams.”