{"id":8525,"date":"2017-01-08T09:52:15","date_gmt":"2017-01-08T04:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kashmir.today\/?p=8525"},"modified":"2017-01-08T09:52:15","modified_gmt":"2017-01-08T04:22:15","slug":"2-kashmiris-play-spanish-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=8525","title":{"rendered":"2 Kashmiris to play in Spanish League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>SRINAGAR:<\/strong> Footballers Basit Ahmed and Mohammed Asrar Rehbar are all set to play Sociedad Deportiva Lenense Proinastur \u2013 a third division professional club from the Spanish La Liga \u2013 for the next six months, making them the first Kashmiris to represent India at such a level.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>\u201cBased on the results of the trials, we are proud to announce the selection of Basit Ahmed for Centre Forward and Muhammed Asrar Rehbar for Winger, a statement issued by CRPF said<\/em><br \/>\n<em>The duo will be playing in the Spanish La Liga 3rd division for the team,\u201d the spokesman added.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Both players were chosen by a special committee formed by the CRPF to pick footballing talent from the Kashmir Valley as part of its \u201cinitiative to engage with the youth.\u201d<\/em><br \/>\n<em>\u201cThese boys were shortlisted on the basis of their performance in the football talent hunt conducted by CRPF,\u201d it added.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>A three-member selection committee was formed to conduct trials for this selection, consisting of Anit Ghosh, Ishfaq Ahmed and Hilal Rasool Parray.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Speaking to Kashmir Reader Mohammad Asrar Rehbar, who plays on the Right wing position, said when my name was announced as one of the selected player, I got emotional and couldn\u2019t control my emotions as tears of joy came out of my eyes.\u201d<\/em><br \/>\n<em>The 18-year-old Rehbar, who hails from uptown Srinagar, said \u201cstar players from valley Ishfaq Ahmad and Mehraj-u-din Wadoo are his mentors and after watching them playing I get inspiration from them<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Rehbar said that he has played in the Santosh Trophy, Durand Cup and I-league and various national tournaments in various age groups.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>He added \u201cwe are leaving for Spain in the last week of January.\u201d<\/em><br \/>\n<em>Rehbar, a 12th class commerce student, has played for Local clubs like J&amp;K Forest Team, Lone Star Kashmir Football Club and currently playing for Real Kashmir Football Club<\/em><br \/>\n<em>\u201cIt is for the first time that any Indian player will be seen playing for a Spanish La Liga club. The Ops Kashmir Sector, CRPF was given the responsibility of identifying this talented player,\u201d the spokesman added.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>\u201cKashmir has produced top class players who have gone on to play at both National and International level like Abdul Majid Kakroo, Ishfaq Ahmed and Mehrajuddin Wadoo,\u201d a CRPF spokesman said.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SRINAGAR: Footballers Basit Ahmed and Mohammed Asrar Rehbar are all set to play Sociedad Deportiva Lenense Proinastur \u2013 a third division professional club from the Spanish La Liga \u2013 for the next six months, making them the first Kashmiris to represent India at such a level. \u201cBased on the results of the trials, we are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8527,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-union-territory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}