Advertisement

Impoverished Indian teen earns dream Manchester United trial

The poverty-stricken son of a sex worker is going from red light to Red Devil - after being offered a dream trial with Manchester United.

'Slumdog' soccer protégé Rajib Roy, 16, will fly to the UK on April 25 to train with the Premier League side's academy team, after impressing scouts during a school football tournament in Goa last month.

The teenager has endured a tough childhood - even by India's standards - growing up in a brothel in Kolkata's notorious Sonagachi neighbourhood.

The largest red light district in the whole of Asia, the neighbourhood is home to over 12,000 sex workers and a mere visit to the area is considered taboo.

A promising striker, Rajib was relentlessly bullied because of his mother's profession and now attends Rahul Vidya Niketan in Sealdah, a special school for the children of sex workers.

 

Rajib, who lives with his mother Rekha and younger brother in a one-room home, told the Times of India: "People keep asking me how it feels to be my mother’s son and then achieve something like this. I don’t know how to answer that question.

"But when my coach told me I had been selected by Manchester United it was like a father’s recognition."

His mother Rekha, who became a sex worker at just 13, said: "I have brought him up amidst difficulties, now he is going abroad and this feels like i have reached the stars.

"He is my stick in the darkness."

Rajib, whose idol is Chelsea playmaker Oscar, will be joined on his 10-day training session with United by friend Arko Dey, 17, after he also impressed watching scouts.

Arko said his mother, who makes a living selling snacks on a street still, wept after hearing he had been picked. "We live in abject poverty," he said.

"She knows nothing about Manchester United."

As well as taking to the field at United's state-of-the-art Carrington training HQ, both Rajib and Arko will also be given a tour of Old Trafford as part of their visit later this month.

We wish both the very best of luck.