Kiren Rijiju, Akshay Kumar join campaign to support Indian women's U17 football team

Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur on Sunday launched a nationwide campaign in order to garner support for India's female footballers participating in FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup. Thakur took to his official Twitter handle to launch the ‘Kick Off The Dream’ campaign and also urged every citizen to join the campaign and show support for our female footballers participating in FIFA Under-17 Women's World Cup for the first time. 

‘Kick Off The Dream’ campaign

While launching the nationwide campaign, Thakur nominated Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra and Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn. Rijiju was quick to respond to Thakur's nomination as he made a video of himself playing football to show support for the campaign. Rijiju also nominated Manipur CM N Biren Singh, Olympic medalist PV Sindhu, and Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar. 

"Thank you @ianuragthakur ji for the support to the Indian women's team for the FIFA U-17 World Cup! I nominate @NBirenSingh Ji  CM of Manipur & Ex-Footballer,  Olympic Medalist @Pvsindhu1 & superfit @akshaykumar to join the campaign #KickOffTheDream & support our female footballers," Rijiju tweeted. 

Akshay Kumar shows his support

Akshay Kumar took to his Twitter handle to heed Rijiju's request. In the video, Akshay can be seen kicking a football high up in the air and calling on citizens to support female footballers. Akshay then nominated Bollywood actor Tiger Shroff and cricketer Shikhar Dhawan to join the campaign and show their support. 

"Thank you @KirenRijiju ji,I am already so proud of our female footballers team. You got this I nominate my friends @iTIGERSHROFF & @SDhawan25 to join the #KickOffTheDream campaign & show support for our female footballers participating for the very 1st time in FIFA U-17 World Cup," Akshay wrote on Twitter. 

India to host  FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2022

India is all set to host the 2022 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup across three venues in the country, starting from October 11. The 21-member Team India squad for the coveted tournament was announced on Wednesday, as the young tigresses are accompanied by Brazil, Morocco, and the United States in Group A. Team India recently returned from their preparatory tournament in Spain and are now set to fight for the coveted World Cup trophy. 

Image: Twitter/Rijiju/Akshay