After winning spree, it’s time to train
Tags:
On the football front, all hope is not lost for Kerala, which led others in the past. While most of the talents of today hail from other states, the Sree Kerala Varma College in Thrissur has become an oasis of hope.
The last season of the college has been an impeccable one for the players and coaches. SKVC played 20 matches, won 17, drew 2 and lost one. It scored 55 goals and conceded just 4 goals. It was certainly one of the best achievements for a college during the season.
The college team won four championships, including the university championship, district super division, South India inter-collegiate championship and Goal 2012.
Associate professor of physical education, Narayana Menon, who trains the team, says, “I am proud of the achievement of the boys, and they are dedicated and serious about the game.
My aim is to develop the first professional college football team. Luckily, most of these boys are in their first year of graduation, so we have a couple of more years to better our performance.”
The coach, an experienced hand in the game, has worked as an assistant of AFC youth development head coach Colm Joseph Toal and also under former Indian national coach Bob Houghton and Desmund Bulpin. Narayana Menon holds an AFC B-license and earned an A-license in football coaching from the German Football Federation.
An alumnus of the college, it was only by July last year that he came back home and found there was some talented young players in the college. He set a fresh team in July, and since then there was no looking back.
“We will be taking our junior players for two all-India tournaments in Chennai and Coimbatore later this year. I am also planning to take the boys to Goa next year and make them play a few practice games there,” said the coach.
According to him, there are a handful of talents in the college team. “There are at least seven Calicut University players in the team and it appears to me that about five of those who played in the XI in the Goal 2012 tournament are extremely talented,” he says.
“Sandeep, our second goal keeper, is just a first-year student, but has a good football brain. Rahul Raj — the centre back, Akhiljith — central midfielder, Bharathan — winger and Faisal Rahman — striker, are some of the highly talented players.”
“Faisal, top scorer of the season, has 25 goals to his credit and it has to be noted that Sameer, the fellow striker, has been unselfish in helping him score those goals. Faisal is a bit lazy, but he is a natural goal scorer, a kind of player who needs to be motivated,” he said.
Post new comment