Mumbai, Oct 14 (IANS): Nine players set to graduate as the first batch from the Reliance Foundation Young Champs (RFYC) academy in Navi Mumbai will be signing contracts with leading clubs in the Indian Super League, country's top-tier football tournament.

Aritra Das, Muhammed Basith PT and Birendra Singh are headed to Kerala Blasters FC, G Balaji and Aqib Nawab will be at Chennaiyin FC, Muhammed Nemil at FC Goa, Thoi Singh at Bengaluru FC, Ayush Chhikara at Mumbai City FC and Koustav Dutta at Hyderabad FC. Balaji and Nawab's deals are for two years while the other seven players have agreed to three-year contracts.

These players have spent the last five years at RFYC as the first batch of students to be inducted when the academy was founded in 2015.

"It is a matter of great pride and joy for us that our young champs from RFYC have embarked on their professional footballing journey with ISL." said Nita Ambani, Founder and Chairperson of Reliance Foundation.

"We started the academy in 2015 to provide a pathway for talented young players across India to build successful professional careers in the sport. These boys arrived at RFYC in their early teens and I am delighted that they step out today as highly skilled players, who have earned a place with the best football clubs in the country," she added.

With 22 new young players joining the program in the last year, the total students currently training at the RFYC academy is 65, with 22 full-time staff.