Dilemma of an aspiring Gulf Goan footballer In the Gulf countries many children like Trevor Dias, have a dream to train and play the way Manchester United players do. But the high cost of coaching programmes dished out by English clubs leaves a big hole in the pockets of parents..
By Armstrong Vaz TREVOR DIAS, Portuguese national of Goan origin, is a die-hard Cristiano Ronaldo fan. He wants to train and play the way the Manchester United striker does. The class VI student dreams of one day playing for the Red Devils. No harm in that, but the parents of Dias are caught in a dilemma as they scan for a football programme in Qatar, tailor made for the needs of their child. But then, after a search spreading over three months in Qatar, they could not find anything which matched the profile and look which Dias was looking for. They had two options-try their luck with at Dubai's Manchester United Football schools or travel to Goa, where the English club contingent first landed in 2007, to test the beach-side state's talent pool in football. Dias is not the only child; numerous other Indian children in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have to give up on their sporting dreams. The lack of accessibility to grounds for training and playing for the children is not the only concern for the Indian students aiming to make it big in the world of football. The high cost of the coaching programmes dished out by English clubs who organised one or two-week camps in the Gulf countries, leave a big hole in the pockets of parents, already reeling from the inflation bubble and rising rents. Lower and middle income group parents cannot afford the high cost of football training. While many a social and cultural Indian clubs are engaged in organising dances, cultural programmes and football tournaments for seniors, the training and tournaments for young kids are effectively overlooked not on purpose or design as some Indian community leaders say, but for the simple logistics of getting such exercise to kick start in the GCC countries. A happy family is one which prays together and plays together and keeping that in mind, some Goans have set the trend albeit in a small way in Bahrain by organising football camps for children. Hopefully, the Gulf Goans network will ensure that Goans based in other GCC countries follow suit. Football promoters who have an eye for talent have been fathoming on the idea of Goan children getting an opportunity to play in different GCC tournaments, when Goans stage their popular Gulf Goan football tournament, which is a hit in the Gulf region. The football tournaments serve as a social outing for the entire family and helps in increasing the networking of Goans to come closer together, fragmented as they are by distance and constrains of time. Staging football camps and tournaments for children will further strengthen the Goans football cause in the Gulf. The kids may not be able to train the way Manchester United Football Schools children do, but a beginning needs to be made. And with the who's who of Gulf Goans football flying to Qatar at the month's end, it will be appropriate to chalk a programme, a beginning, which is likely to serve as a catalyst for other Indian communities in the GCC to follow. After all Goa is a hub of Indian football. An opportunity is there for the Goans to steam roll a youth development programme in the Gulf countries for Goan kids as Goa Football Association (GFA) secretary, Savio Messais is flying to Qatar for the tournament. Messais will be on hand to give GFA's a helping hand - the motto would be- even if one Bruno Coutinho or one Brahmanand Shanwalkar came out through the exercise from each of the GCC countries, it would be worth the toil and help India's football cause. If Trevor Dias' dreams and fantasies of training the way young kids at Manchester United Football School are, he has a long way to go. A lot will depend on the way, Gulf Goans chalk a road map for football's progress keeping the young interests in mind. Till then, he will have to train the way he does and not as per the programme of Red Devils. http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=144224 ~(^^)~ Avelino
