Bhubaneswar: Defying all odds, 11-year-old slum boy Chandan Nayak today flew to Mumbai before reaching the prestigious Bayern Munich football club in Germany to train as an academy player.

Chandan, who lives at Sabar Sahi slum here along with his mother Duhita Nayak, a woman deserted by her husband long ago, is confident to acquire the techniques of football before completion of his two months training. "I do not remember my father. My mother fed me and my younger brother by working as a domestic help. I had lost hope to visit Germany as there was problem in getting visa. Finally I got it from Kolkata," Chandan, a student of class VII in the
Capital High School, said before boarding a flight to Mumbai.