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Five weeks ago a few hundred teenagers turned up at Parade Ground in Jammu with birth certificates and boots, hoping to make a squad. On Sunday that squad's national campaign ended in Narainpur, Chhattisgarh, four points into a group it needed to win outright.
J&K's junior boys finished second in Tier 2, Group D of the Dr B.C. Roy Trophy Junior Boys' National Football Championship 2026-27, played at the RK Ashram Ground in Narainpur. Three matches, four points:
- 26 August — lost 0-1 to Madhya Pradesh
- 28 August — beat Gujarat 1-0
- 30 August — drew 0-0 with SAI
Under the AIFF's format for this championship, only group winners go through to the semi-finals. Second place, however close, is the end of the tournament. The championship runs from 25 August to 9 September 2026, with sixteen teams in each of two tiers — Tier 1 in Bengaluru, Tier 2 in Narainpur.
What the scoreline actually says
One goal conceded in three matches, and one scored. This was a side that defended well enough to win a group and could not find the goal that would have done it. A 0-0 against SAI — the Sports Authority of India's own side, drawn from national training centres — is a creditable last result rather than a collapse, which makes the 0-1 opening defeat to Madhya Pradesh the match this campaign turned on.
That is a familiar shape for J&K age-group teams and a useful one to be honest about. The gap between this squad and the group winners was not fitness or organisation. It was the final third.
Where this squad came from
This is the payoff to a process a lot of Jammu families were part of. The squad was assembled through open divisional trials held at Parade Ground, Jammu on 31 July and 1 August — the same trials we wrote about in Open Football Trials in Jammu. No club affiliation, no fee, no agent: a date, a ground and a birth certificate.
Which is worth stating plainly, because the result is a disappointment and the pathway is not. A boy who walked into Parade Ground in July as an unattached trialist played a national championship in August. There are very few routes in Indian sport that short.
And the next one is this week
If you are reading this and you were born between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2014, the same door opens again almost immediately: the J&K Sports Council holds open divisional trials for the UT Sub-Junior Boys squad at the Mini Stadium synthetic turf, Parade Ground, Jammu, on 1, 2 and 3 September from 9 am. Bring the original birth certificate, an updated Aadhaar, two passport photographs plus two photocopies of each document, and full kit. It is open to J&K residents, and it costs nothing.
The junior boys' run is over. The trial queue is not.
Sources: Greater Kashmir — Dr B.C. Roy Trophy: J&K junior boys finish group campaign with 4 points; All India Football Federation — Junior Boys NFC for Dr B.C. Roy Trophy 2026-27.
