Jaipur, April , 2023.

Leading tyre maker Apollo Tyres, in association with Manchester United, successfully held the trials for the third season of their flagship grassroots football programme ‘United We Play’ in Jaipur today.

The initiative, which aims to encourage young footballing talent, saw an overwhelming response from budding footballers of the city with over 400 youngsters participated in the programme. The trials, which was held at the Union Football Ground, drew participation from young footballers even from cities such as Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Kanpur, Ludhiana, apart from Jaipur.

Among them, 35 talented footballers are all set to participate in the next phase of the trials, which will be held in New Delhi early next month. The best talent from across locations will participate in the grand finale of the competition and winners will get a trip to Manchester, with several experiential activities at Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United.

The United We Play programme is an on-ground grassroots football initiative, supported by Manchester United to encourage young football talent from across the country by giving them a platform to showcase their skills with the objective of motivating aspiring footballers to continue playing and introducing them to global training methodologies.

The third edition of United We Play programme was launched in Goa earlier in the presence of Manchester United’s first team players David De Gea, Anthony Elanga and Donny van de Beek.

The first two seasons received an overwhelming response with over 10,000 players from the country participating in the hybrid programme comprising on-ground trials and virtual sessions with Manchester United Soccer Schools’ coaches.

This year, the programme will also travel outside India to Thailand, UAE and Nepal and over 8500 footballers are expected to take part, making this the biggest edition of the programme thus far.