Siddhant S. Mehta was a member of the Cathedral and John Connon School team that represented India at the FC Bayern Youth Cup World Finals round held in Munich recently. Eight teams from different parts of the world participated in the final round of the tournament for age group 14-16 years, with the team from India finishing sixth. Siddhant is the son of Arpita and Sumeet K. Mehta.

In India, the rigorous selection process took place earlier this year with over 200 schools from all over the country participating. The team from Cathedral and John Connon won the finals in a penalty shoot out. The India round of the tournament was supported by Adidas, Lufthansa and the Bundesliga.

In the final round, which was supported by the Bundesliga, Adidas, Audi, Yingli Solar, HypoVereinsbank, Bank Austria and Wangkanai, teams from USA, Japan, China, Thailand, Austria, India and Germany took part. During their visit to the centre of the renowned club, the young footballers also attended training sessions supervised by the coaches from the club’s junior team. They also witnessed a match between FC Bayern and Hanover 96 and enjoyed an extensive guided tour of the Bavarian capital.

As a younger child, Siddhant was an avid chess player and had even achieved an FIDE ranking. However, he has subsequently focused on football.