AIFF NATIONAL YOUTH TRAINING CENTER, Bhubaneswar.
At 6 AM on 2nd November 2026, On a cold foggy morning the gates of the AIFF newly developed National Youth Training Center in Bhubaneswar the gates were widely opened to all.
Then one by one the hundred finalised players selected from across the country started to enter the campus building. Each carrying two bags, one filled with boots, jersey, and personal stuff and the other bag filled with their dreams.
A large digital board flashed across the welcome hall :
"AIFF National Project - November selection camp. 100 in, 26 out."
Raghav stared at the gates from his room sitting on a chair while carrying a cup of tea in his hands and said to himself in his mind
"These kids don't know what they will face in the next 7 days." He exhales his breath.
At 8:30 AM, All the 100 players gathered in the campus hall forming lines. All were quiet and just staring at each other.
Raghav goes to the middle of the podium with his relaxed, calm and composed face. He just looked around and scanned each face - from every corner of India. He exhaled and broke the silence.
"You all are here because someone - somewhere - believed you might belong at the beginning of something. Not because you are the best or greatest. But because in the race of thousands you left a mark".
He pauses for a second and then begins again.
"I would like to break your illusion now only that you all are not a team. You are a hundred individuals - raw, uncontrolled and fighting for your place. You are dangerous to yourself and useless to others."
He starts to walk calmly on the podium. He changes his tone to tough and authoritative.
"Over the next Seven days, I will ask you questions that you haven't been asked by your coaches. I will take away your comfort. I will put you in situations for which you will not be ready. We will watch who survives - not in just sprints or skills but also in decision-making, attitude and self-control during those tough times."
He stops and makes eye contact with those whose eyes are still calm and commanding.
"This is not just a camp. This is a knockout zone. And if you expect or wait for any encouragement, applause, or fairness ."
"Then the gates are still open you can leave just now." Says just by pointing towards the gates.
Some of them got nervous and shifted a bit back. And some swallowed their spit hardly.
Raghav folded his arms and stood calm but commanded.
"You are not just competing against one another. You are also competing against the ideas and thoughts of what this country thinks about Indian Football. You can be the one burying those nonsense ideologies." He started firmly but ended tough and loud.
"At the end of this week, seventy-four of you will be leaving. And if I did my job correctly, you will be grateful - because you will have tested and seen your limits for the first time in your life."
His voice got softened but the weight of them only grew after each word.
" The twenty - six who remain will not be praised or applauded. They will be the chosen ones. Not for how good they were. But for how far they are willing to push themselves."
"In these Seven days, either you will make it or break it. The choice is yours."
A silence fell across the hall for some time.
Then Raghav commanded them.
"Now go warm up. You have 30 minutes before your first test. And if you are tired already, then I will tell you again the gate is that way." Moved his head towards the gate.
"As there is no space for comfort."
" Best of Luck to all" and he exhaled and looked towards them.
He turned his back and walked off the podium and hall. Leaving those hundred in the middle of a sea. And to see who swims and reaches till the sea shore.
The moment Raghav left the hall, the entire hall seemed to exhale.
No one clapped. No one moved. A strange stillness hung in the air, and it felt like a rope stretched to its last thread before the snap.
Then quietly, everyone starts walking towards the warn-up zones, some jogged, with shoulders tight. Some still remained there like a snowman, eyes looking towards the way the coach had just spoken like a military general addressing a war council.
At the far left corner of the hall, two boys walked side by side - Harshit, tall and lean, with nervous hands tightly clenched at his sides, and Abhinav, shorter, stockier and eyes darting beneath furrowed eyebrows.
"Did he just say seventy-four will be gone?" Harshit whispered, his voice was barely audible over the sound of relief.
Abhinav gave a calm nod and said, "Yeah. And I think he meant that only."
Harshit looked down towards his boots. They weren't new. Slightly scuffed and old. One of the studs had a chip. "My name is probably already pencilled out."
Abhinav stopped walking for a second and turned to face him. "Then un-pencil it."
Harshit blinked twice and then looked strangely at Abhinav.
''Play like every minute should be proof that you deserve to compete and exist here." Abhinav said but he said it more to himself than to his friends.
" No one remembers nervous or failed boys. They only remember the one who fought till their last breath and made it real."
For a moment the fear released. Not gone but shaped into something else... and that was the feeling of self-realisation.
Harshit nodded slowly and jogged ahead.
In between these doubts and belief, a hundred journeys had just begun.
Raghav was watching through his narrowed eyes from the far side of the pitch. As he already knew:
This week would break most of them. Actually, all of them.