**Bhubaneswar**: Chandan Nayak, an 11-year-old football player from Sabar Sahi slum in the Capital City here selected to go Germany to attend a training camp, has got his birth certificate on Tuesday.
On Monday, he was denied of a passport as he didn’t have birth certificate and following this, he along with his coach approached City Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena to intervene in the matter.
With the help of Jena, the teen football sensation on Tuesday got the certificate which is essential to apply for passport.
“I am very happy that I got my birth certificate today with the help of my coach, and Mayor sir. I will play well and bring laurels to my state,” the teenage footballer said.
Speaking on this, the Mayor said, “We are proud in helping Chandan to get his birth certificate which is essential to apply for passport as he will go to Germany for training. He is the pride of our state, country and more importantly for our city so we all are praying for his successful journey and to become a player like world famous Lionel Messi.”
“We were very much worried as he (Chandan) didn’t have the birth certificate but I approached Mayor sir to make it happen for him. With the intervention of Mayor sir, we have been able to get the certificate done in a day. Without him, it wouldn’t have been possible to get it done in a day. So, thanks to him and his team,” said Chandan’s coach Jayadev Mohapatra.
Earlier, Jena along with Sports and Youth Services Minister Sudam Marndi, Bhubaneswar (Middle ) MLA Bijaya Kumar Mohanty and (Bhubaneswar (North) MLA Priyadarshi Mishra visited Chanda’s Sabar Sahi house and wished him for better future.
Notably, Chandan got selected in the seventh season of the Junior Football Camp, for school-level footballers held at Bhubaneswar along with Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, Patna, Guwahati and Kochi. The 11-year-old footballer got selected at Bhubaneswar talent scouting held in the month of July. Chandan conformed his place among the top five players of the country by competing with 160 players and has been selected to be trained at Bayern Munich, the iconic football club in Germany, as an academy player.
