Fr Agnel ready for Subroto Cup challenge in Delhi

MARGAO

The tournament will see a total of 99 teams across the country rubbing shoulders with squads from abroad. At least 10 foreign teams are expected from five countries. The tournament would be held without the club teams this year.
The tournament was the brainchild of late Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee. He conceived the idea of launching a football tournament, at junior level, in 1958, the year when he was the Chief of the Air Staff. Being an ardent soccer lover, he believed that football needed to be encouraged at grassroots level in order to promote and realise its growth at national and international level.
Unfortunately, he died untimely in 1960. However, his concept lived on in the form of Subroto Mukerjee Sports Education Society, established in the very same year. At the time of inauguration of its first tournament, which was also held in 1960, the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru offered a tribute to this great visionary and named the tournament after the late Air Marshal. Thus, began the journey of the Subroto Cup Football Tournament, held every year since then.
Over the years, the scope of the tournament has been widened to include foreign participation as a logical step forward in an endeavour to encourage budding footballers and offer them international exposure at a tender age. As a result of this, teams from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Israel, Bhutan, UAE, Uzbekistan, Switzerland, United Kingdom and Ukraine have participated in this tournament in the recent past.
Meanwhile, midfielder Flan Gomes has been named as the captain of the 16-member Fr Agnel squad. Socooro Vaz has taken over the reins of the team as coach Sham Gawli is busy with his engagement with Churchill Brothers youth teams.
"Our objective for the tournament is to qualify for the quarter-finals and do our best in the competition," Vaz said. "From my assessment of watching these players on the eve of departure at Fr Agnel ground, Verna, I feel this team has great capacity to beat the best teams in the country. In New Delhi, we will get to see how the boys cope with the pressure of playing best teams of the country."
Ivan D'Sa, Physical Education teacher who is the manager of the team, said: "We have a good team and I'am confident they will perform well."
Fr Agnel has been clubbed with Chandigarh, NCC, Kendriya Vidhalaya and CBSE.