Once a home for many professional football players, having represented the State and leading clubs, football has been gradually losing its steam largely due to a lack of facilities.
Says Peter Baretto, who has a retired from service and now president of Cortalim Gymkhana: “I travel everyday from Margao and reach Cortalim at 7 am. I along with Mario Pereira coach of SAG oversee training of 30 enthusiastic young boys and girls from the village.”
“But we can’t give our best for these budding players for many reasons. In the first place, the Our Lady of Perpetual Succour ground lacks even the basic elements needed to groom the budding soccer players even in learning basic skills of football,” says Baretto.
“The ground surface is hard. There is no grass on the ground and there is a possibility that players can fall and risk injuries while learning heading and other skills.”
Besides, there are no changing rooms for girls. Then, the saline water has to be stopped from entering the ground, for which an outer wall has to be built to so that the grass does not perish because of salinity,” Baretto added.
According to Baretto, his players who are under 14 and 16 have excelled and even played for Subroto Cup in Delhi, the national games at Kolkata, Nagaland and various other clubs in the state.
“We can still move forward, but we require logistic support and the government has to pitch in,” said Baretto.
Anthony Vaz, who heads the Cortalim Villagers Club, also expressed the same sentiments.“The work on the ground had started in 2002. Some truck load of mud was dumped on the ground, but thereafter the work stopped and has remained neglected,” he said.
Vaz, who has been organising the All Goa Inter-Village football tournaments for 22 years, said he was forced to abandon the tournament for eight years since the ground was not conducive for playing football. “However this year, I have restarted the tournament so that it is not forgotten and the sport stays alive,” said Vaz.
Incidentally, all the neighbouring villages – Nagoa, Cansaulim and Agassaim have developed good grounds.
Delip Bandodkar, a government employee however was more pessimistic. “It is not only about the ground. Cortalim lags behinds in everything, whether it is recreational facility for senior citizens, gymnasium and jogger’s park. We had the famous Kesarval spring, which has affected by the uncontrolled number of bore wells in the Verna Industrial Estate.”
“Today the youth have taken to drinks since they have no other place where they could have spent their time and bars have been the main source of entertainment. The only thing that has happened is that the work on a new fish market, which was pending for several years has started.”
When contacted, Cortalim MLA and Forest and Environment Minister Alina Saldanha said the Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs (DSYA) is finalising a draft to be handed over to the owners of the ground, the Fabrica of Cortalim church.
“Once the draft is accepted by both the DSYA and the Fabrica, the ground will be taken up for development by the Sports Authority of Goa and will include a jogger’s track, dressing rooms for girls and boys with toilets, a stand for the spectators, etc.” said Saldanha.
