Team Herald
PANJIM: Young goalkeepers in Goa have learnt to scowl at the mention of one name in recent times. 15-year-old Aaron Barreto, who is proving to be a scourge for the men under the sticks with the accurate and prolific finishing over the last few years. The football dynamo is perhaps rewriting the records of school football and at the tender age of 15 is on the threshold manning it up for senior level football teams in the country.
Barreto hails from Loyola High School in Margaio, an alma mater which has groomed some of the best talent in the country whether in sports, academics or even politics — Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is a product of Loyola High School.Born to the Varca-based parents Michael and Rosy, Aaron, till last count has scored a whopping 146 goals which include three hat-tricks in all kind of competition. Michael and Rosy prefer their son not waste his soccer talent by pursuing professions other than football and the results of the confidence shown in the ward are showing already and how.
He has competed at the under-15 and under-17 levels and currently plays for the Salgaocar Football Club. The break up of his goals reveals that he scored 83 in inter-school competitions, 54 for Salgaocar FC and 15 for Goa at the National Games. A record, which would make any young footballer jealous.
In fact during the National Games, Aaron had a memorable outing against teams from Jharkhand, Kerala, Meghalaya, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat. He particularly relished playing against the latter against whom he scored a spectacular hat-trick.
Such consistent performances saw him win the footballer of the year award in 2014-15, 2015-16. According to his coach Cajetan Fernandes, Aaron is certainly made for greater things and the lad’s eyes are firmly fixed on a slot in the Indian football team in the future. “One day we just know he will make it to the Indian football team’s playing eleven,” says Cajetan Fernandes, who has coached the lad in the Loyola’s school team as well as at the Salgaocar FC.
Such success could not have come without the active support of the school principal Pedro Rodrigues and class teacher Aleton Fernandes who has always looked out for the star footballer.
So who does Goas brightest football star idolise as heroes on the world football stage? No surprises that one of his heroes is Cristiano Ronaldo, the Real Madrid modern legend who along with Barcelonas Lionel Messi sits at the pinnacle of football talent today. His second idol is Didier Drogba, the Ivorian former Chelsea striker, who is known to outfox and outmuscle his way past the best defences in the world.
“With their power and ability anything is possible on the football pitch,” the young Goan star says. Let us only hope that young Aaron grows on to rub shoulders with some of the best footballers in the world and continues to inspire younger talent on the Indian football stage as he continues to not only rain goals, but also unleash a reign of terror on goalkeepers.
