Youngster to play at Old Trafford.
Manchester United have handed a trial to the teenager son of an Indian sex-worker.
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Rajib Roy, 16, was spotted by United talent scouts and is one of 11 Indian teens set to arrive in the UK this week for a fortnight’s training with coaches from the Premier League champions.
Roy shares a single room with his mother and brother in the red light district of Kolkata, West Bengal.
His mother is a prostitute, one of 12,000 sex workers in the Sonagachi suburb they call home.
‘People keep asking me how it feels to be my mother’s son and then achieve something like this,” Roy told the Mail.
‘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.’
He added: ‘My mother is a very shy person. She would lock me in my room after lunch so that I could take a nap, but I would quietly sneak out to play with my friends.
‘Last month I was selected along with 30 others to participate in a camp in Goa through a nationwide school championship competition.
‘I arrived late because I took a train from Kolkata. Everybody else took a flight.’
Dr Samarjit Jana, who set up the football initiative which helped Rajib win a place at the United training camp, says the youngster hopes to make a career out of football.
‘Rajib’s dream is to build career in football. He wants to play in the English Premier league and his favorite team is Manchester United.
‘One of his other goals is to help his nine year-old brother get into an English medium school so he can develop a better academic career.’
Dr. Jana added: ‘We started a football academy on a very small scale four years ago.
‘It provides training for children of marginalised communities such as sex workers and construction workers.
‘Out of 11 boys selected from this eastern part of India by Manchester United two of them are from our community.
‘There are five million sex workers in India and we are just providing a minority of them, and their families, with a chance.
‘This shows that if you give them the opportunities they have a chance of success and I’m sure other boys will follow them.’