From walking the streets in Kerala, begging for alms with his sister as a seven-year-old, to now looking forward to his month-long stay in Spain alongside the stars of iconic La Liga club Real Madrid, life really took an unimaginable spin for R Manikandan, now aged 14.
The six-foot lanky teenager is “very reserved” but speaks volumes when he gets hold of a football, said R Sreekumar, supervisor of the children’s home where Manikandan stayed after being rescued in 2011. “Manikandan dribbles the ball with the dexterity of a rubber doll and defends the opponent ferociously,” Sreekumar says.
The teenager is all set to fly to Spain for his month-long trip to Madrid in July.
Turned a hero overnight, many clubs have felicitated the football prodigy.
Read more of this in a story by Ramesh Babu published in Hindustan Times...
