Young coaches eager to prove a point -by Armstrong Vaz
MARGAO: They are just thirty six. An age when some of their former playing colleagues are still active and playing the game at the highest level. They quit the game a couple of seasons back. They are new entrants to coaching arena and they have an enormous task and responsibility ahead as the Goan professional league kicks off on Sunday 18 September. The big guns will be gunning for the two clubs with whom these coaches are associated. Will they be able to pull off a few upsets and turn the apple-cart of their famed rivals topsy-turvy. Coaching was the next step to keep them engrossed with the game that has given them so much of a name and made them a recognizable face in the football fraternity of the state. Raia Sporting Club's Ajay Acharya and MPT Sports Council's coach Camilo Baptista are the new faces on the coaching horizon gunning for new talent, grooming young Goan footballers for the bigger challenges and plotting on drawing boards for their respective teams. Navelim based Ajay Acharya (nicknamed Buddoo) started his football career with Rosary High School, Navelim. Former international defender Hercules Gomes, Ajays close door neighbor had the greatest influence on Ajay's footballing career. Ajay grew up emulating Hercules' style of play and his mannerism on the football field. It was but natural for Ajay to take up his idols position as a defender in any team he joined. Ajay's first destination was Salcete Football Club, a club which has played a surrogate mother for numerous great footballers from the state. He then hopped over to now defunct Anderson Marine. Ajay, then moved on to Orkay Mills, Mumbai, another defunct club, a move which Ajay says was on the advice of his mentor Hercules. A move which he feels was in the right direction. The move opened doors to the wider world for Ajay. Later, Air India coach Bimal Ghosh, the shrewd tactician who groomed many a raw talent molded him to be a regular player with Air India. Bimal Ghosh has made a lasting impression on my football career not to forget Hercules. GFA secretary Savio Messais too has given me the right opportunity after completing my C-license in coaching. Says Ajay with humility. Ajay then came to Dempo Sports Club and finished his playing days with Fransa - Pax Football Club. Ajay till recently was playing with the junior boys and some of the senior professionals like Chandrakant Naik for the Navelim inter-village team. Benaulim based Camilo Baptista started with his village team Benaulim and got awarded with a place with the then first division outfit Agassaim Youth club. Late Fernando Abranches, Agassaim coach could keep the defender cum midfielder for just one season and the next 13 years saw the robust Camilo remaining a faithful soldier of MPT SC. Marcus Pacheco, Raymond Carvalho and Carlos Gomes are the MPT coaches he has played under. Incidentally, Camilo replaces Carlos Gomes who was coach at MPT till last season. Carlos incidentally was replaced after a new set of office bearers of the MPT sports committee took over mid way into the season Camilo Baptista's football instincts and talents remained unfulfilled at his school at Loyolas, Margao where he finished his school education. He kicked off his football career with Damodar College, Margao where he completed his graduation. His coaching career started with his training of the under-15 team of his village club - Cana Benaulim Sporting Association. That was five years back. Since then the passion and challenges of coaching a team has ignited fire of success and the challenge has motivated him to greater heights to be conquered in coaching. Coaching a team is a challenge, it is completely a different aspect if one compares a player's playing career and coaching career. He says matter of of fact. Camilo will have his first feel of the senior level (as a coach) as he takes over MPT wherein some of his colleagues like Vishant Pednekar, Jeetrendra Bhise, Sheikh Abu and Lino Perieira to name a few, who till recently were playing mates. He will now preside over the destiny of the same set of players. At Raia Sporting Club too, Ajay has one of his former Air India colleague - goalkeeper turned striker Raymond Cardozo - playing for the club. Time will tell, whether the two have arrived on the scene or whether they are just a flash in the pan and whether they are ready for the bigger challenges of Indian football. The Goan professional football league fortunes will put them under the scanner. It will be an acid test for the two young guns on the coaching front. Links: http://www.goa-world.com/goa/index.html
