‘Give Sathyan his due recognition’

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The demand is simple. Give due recognition to late Indian football captain V.P. Sathyan.

This July marked the fifth anniversary of his tragic death and the former defender’s wife Anitha is staging a lone struggle to open the eyes of authorities to recognise his selfless contributions to Indian football as a player and assistant coach of the national side.

Once the backbone of the Indian football, V.P. Sathyan has been forgotten by the central and state governments and nothing has been done to honour him and his efforts so far.

“He had led the Indian team in several matches and was a first eleven player for about 12 years,”says Anitha.

“But so far there is no academy or even a tournament in his name, they seem to have forgotten that such a person even existed,” says his wife who recently submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister and the State Sports Minister.

She is also in an effort to prove the cause of his death. “After his death, there was news doing the rounds that it was his depression, which led to his suicide. I have proof that the pain killers and injections for his injuries caused him the depression, which subsequently led to his death,” she said.

“During our stay in Chennai, Sathyan showed the symptoms of depression and he had tried to commit suicide. After this, there were several counseling sessions.

However, this could not overcome the side effects of the medicines he took,” she adds.

Anitha believes that it was due to the negative news about his death that made the very same public, which cheered him during his playing days, forget him so easily.

“Besides, when he went to play outside the state several officials opposed it,” she says.

“If it were not for these reasons, no one could have forgotten Sathyan, who led the Indian team that bagged gold in the SAF games, in 1995,” she says.

“He had given his life for the game and even after retirement, he coached the Indian Bank team and the Indian team for years,” she recollected as tears filled her eyes.

The present generation does not know that there was a player and coach named Sathyan and the government should do something about this, she urged.