Celtic could uncover some hot prospects from the sub-continent - after being asked to help to support football in India, reports the Scottish Sun. Hoops supremo Peter Lawwell flew to Mumbai yesterday and will unveil the club is backing the Mahindra Youth Football Challenge at a press conference in India today.
Celtic will send coaches to work with the thousands of under-14s kids and Indian coaches who take part in the tournament, which will be rolled out across six major cities in January.
Then at least two of the best starlets will head to Glasgow and be put through their paces at the club's academy next year.
Lawwell said: "We're delighted to accept this invitation to visit India and we hope to establish a lasting positive connection in the country.
"Celtic already carries out fantastic community and coaching work across Scotland and Ireland. We've translated this to programmes in Japan, the USA and Australia.
"Given Celtic's origins, Celtic has a unique story to tell and it's great that there's such interest in the club.
"We are fortunate to have supporters and interest in the club from across the globe.
"We're sure this initiative in India will prove very successful in showing Celtic and indeed Scottish football to a whole new audience."
World Cup sponsors Mahindra are a huge conglomerate in India and have already set up several sports foundations.
They hope this link-up, which sees the Hoops become the tournament's technical partner, will give football a wider platform to develop stars of the future.
The game has shown signs of taking off since the creation of the I League in 2007.
