Mall named best player as Providence take Plate title

Providence skipper Akshay Mall has been adjudged Player of the Tournament in the boys under-15 segment. He was the top scorer for the club in the meet.

It was the first time that any Indian club got the Asian fellowship to play in the Kanga Cup.

Meanwhile, the prodigious midfielder has been picked up for third and final coaching camp in Goa for the under-16 National Football Team.

The Goa camp commences on July 22. The 15-year-old Mall, a 10th standard student of Baroda ONGC High School, is the only player from Gujarat among 24 selected for the camp.

Akshay had earlier attended two national coaching camps at Sports Authority of India (SAI) complex, Gandhinagar and Goa. The camps were held from March 6 to April 6, 2007 and May 15 to June 15, 2007, respectively.

Akshay’s father Vimal Mall, who played for Gujarat in Santosh Trophy eight times, said, “Akshay is passionate about the game and is playing soccer since the age of 6.”

After the camp, Indian team for the AFC U-16 qualifying competition 2007 will be selected. India are placed in Group C where others countries are Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Lebanon and Bhutan.

Akshay captained the state team in 29th sub-junior national football championship for ‘Mir Iqbal Hussain Trophy’ at Betul in Madhya Pradesh in 2006.