27 Jan 2022  |   04:41am IST

Brahmanand’s Padma Shri a boost to Goan football

A generation of football enthusiasts – most of whom will have stopped playing the game but continue following it – who had cheered the prowess of Brahmanand Sankhwalkar on the football field and taken pride when he donned the Indian jersey and then captained the national team have another reason to cheer the celebrated goalkeeper.

On the eve of Republic Day he was named for the coveted Padma Shri, an award he well deserves for his achievements in the sporting arena. And cheer they did, for not one of those who counted as a fan of the ace goalkeeper from Goa could help being proud that Brahmanand had been selected for the fourth highest civilian award in the country. He certainly merits it.

Unassuming as always, Brahmanand was surprised when he received congratulatory messages coming from friends and football contacts, as he had no inkling that the award was coming his way. He learnt of it from his legion of fans who still recall the wall that he was in the goal. But, as he said, after half a century in football and an Arjuna Award already bagged, there was always the possibility of a Padma Shri coming his way. It did come to him, a good 25 years after he won that Arjuna Award. In the meantime he continued in football. If not goalkeeping, then coaching and administrating the game, giving back to the youth of today what he had learnt and of his talent. Today he is chairman of the Goa Football Development Council. 

The Padma Shri is a recognition not just of what Brahmanand has achieved in the sporting arena, but of Goan football, a toast to the glory of the sport in Goa, when the State totally dominated the game in the country. Brahmanand played during the period when Goan football teams were claiming the title of football’s best in the country by winning the Rovers Cup, the Durand Cup, the Federation Cup and of course Goa first won the Santosh Trophy with him in the goal. He couldn’t have achieved what he did if his team mates had not performed as well. Football is after all a team sport.

For Goan football that in recent years has been struggling to claim the space that it once did on the national scene, the Padma Shri to Brahmanand should act as an impetus to revive the game and reclaim the space Goan football once occupied. Football as the State sport, has a huge fan following and young boys do take to the game with a natural affinity. The talent exists, but it rarely gets developed, this despite the Goa Football Development Council having been formed and tasked with promoting the game in the State. Football deserves to be treated better in the State than it currently is. The game’s administrators have to take stock of the decline in the sport and get it back up.

For the past two years little football has been played in Goa, primarily due to the pandemic. Ironically, there are a lot of veterans’ football tournaments being played and far too few of the regular kind. School tournaments have not been held since early 2020. And earlier this month, the Goa Pro League that was being played was abruptly called off due to the rise in pandemic cases. But on the other hand, the Indian Super League has seen no such stoppage and the matches continue without interruption. Football in Goa requires such dedication from it administrators so that the game can continue to be played and taken back to the heights it once enjoyed. Can the Padma Shri to Brahmanand Sankhwalkar do this?