Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar launched the initiative in the presence of Sports Minister Ramesh Tawadkar, Chairman of GFC Dr Rufino Monteiro, MLA Dr Pramod Sawant, MLA Siddharth Kuncaliencar, CCP Mayor Shubam Chodankar, Curca Sarpanch Maria D’Cunha, Sports Secretary Dr Samuel Mathews and DSYA Director VM Prabhudesai.
Also present were GFDC Council Members Brahmanand Shankwalkar, Shantaram Naik, Savio Messias, Agnelo Fonseca, Liberata Mascarenhas, Bruno Coutinho, Maria Rebello and Shaikh Suleman Karol.
Welcoming the gathering, Member Secretary of GFDC, Aleixo Da Costa thanked the Chief Minister and Sports Minister and other dignitaries for gracing the function and assured to carry forward the mandate of GFDC.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Rufino Monteiro outlined the success story of GFDC with 3,500 trainees at 31 football development centres, the north and south boys academy who fared well in GFA under-14 league and finished third and second respectively.
The icing on the cake being GFDC trainee Sushmita Jadhav from the Moira centre, who represented the India under-14 team in Nepal recently.
Ramesh Tawadkar complimented GFDC and its coaches who devote their effort in nurturing the talent at the grassroots level and urged other sports coaches to follow the example. He further congratulated GFDC for taking forward former Chief Minister of Goa, Manohar Parrikar’s initiative of making football the official State sport of Goa.
Laxmikant Parsekar stated that celebrating the anniversary of GFDC was a proud moment for Goa and the development done in the last three years has produced so much talent across 31 centres. He further complimented GFDC Chairman, Dr. Rufino Monteiro and GFDC for the good work and congratulated parents for supporting their kids in football.
