The dusty brown playground marked by deep cuts may not bethe ideal surface to play or learn the basics of football but that ground isthe birthplace of some of the young talent that comes into Goan football. Everyday at 7 o clock in the morning, Peter Baretto, President of Cortalim Gymkhanais present along with Mario Pereira, SAG coach to oversee the training ofapproximately 30 enthusiastic young boys who are playing a football match. Thisscene has been playing every day since 2006, when the gymkhana decided to focusits attention on the development of youth.
Established in 1979, the club was then a regular, movingbetween the second and third division of the state league. With five clubs inthe area, Peter and the other members realised that since no one was focusingon the youth and were interested in overnight success the standard of the gamewas stagnating and everyone was stuck in a morass.
According to Peter, when he first started coming over in themorning, there was degree of skepticism and the participation of boys took awhile to increase. It then started when the people realised they were serious.The Our Lady of Perpetual Succour ground is now the venue for the trainingsessions in the mornings held every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The ground inKurpowado in Cortalim is the venue for training in the evenings.
The success of this initiative can be gauged by the factthat boys are now part of Sesa youth programme. Leslie D’souza is now part ofthe Dempo U-16 team and Jason Lucas was part of the India team set up not solong ago. The worry over theavailability of money is not far from the surface. This has meant footballsbeing stitched following a tear. As Peter say’s “We have to be smart and ensurethat everything is used to the max. We generate some funds from the Christmasdance and the rest of the money comes out of our pockets”. It is estimated theyspend approximately Rs.70,000 a year for the jerseys, the snacks and shoes forthe young squad.
Mario who is involved in the training session says thetalent is there but it is important to ensure that a system is in place to makesure that talent does not slip. He says the group playing on the ground now maysplit when they leave school with some focusing on the game and othersdeveloping other interests. It was tough but when one boy makes it big all thefrustration is forgotten and the success makes it worthwhile. As Peter says, it’s about the love and thedesire to see young people do well in life.
