Football's soldiers pump in money to run Students Union FC
BENGALURU: From the outside it passes of as any other grocery store in a crowded market area. But the inside story – an inspiring tale of 20 former footballers who run the shop and pump some of their profits back into their favourite sport - makes this one on Kadirappa Road in Cox Town a key window to the fortunes of footballers from the state.
Backed by these former players - including former ITI stars Thomas J and David Jaikumar who run Annapurneshwari Enterprises - Students Union FC is back in the Super Division league and has roped in a few big names including former India skipper Carlton Chapman who is set to mentor a team of talented players led by former HAL skipper Xavier Vijayakumar.
The club, formed in 1951 by MD Muthappa and Ebenezer, has come through the ranks and is in Super Division for the second time. "We are making moderate profits from the store. We plough back around 5-10 per cent into the club. There are at least 50 members who contribute Rs 500 and above periodically to run the club. We hope to find more sponsors this season," assistant secretary of the club, S Ravi, told TOI.
"Our budget doubled to around Rs 15 lakh as we signed a few top players this year. We were able to keep it manageable limits because we have signed the players only for the League," said general secretary C Murthy, one of the guiding forces of the club for the last three decades, who began his career with the club as a teenager.
According to new coach Chapman, former coach of Tata Football Academy, a majority of the players had offers from other places but chose Students Union. "This squad is a mix of talent and experience and I'm confident they will do well," said Chapman, a product of SAI, after a training session at the Maria Niketan grounds.
Such is the popularity of the club, headed by Gopi Krishna, that more and more players are flocking to get into the 22-man squad. "Close to 300 players turned up at the football stadium when we conducted trials to pick our side after we qualified for the Super Division two years back," Murthy said.
In the current batch, four - Xavier, Gopi, John Benadict and Karthick B - have moved from HAL and one joined from Goan club Vasco. The side also has two TFA graduates in Deepak Prakash and Niroshan Mani.
Over the years, the low-profile club has produced several players who went on to scale greater heights. Among them are Krishnappa, Balasubramaniam (Bengal Bala of Mohun Bagan), goalkeeper Thomas (Karnataka's custodian in the last Santosh Trophy) and striker Anto Xavier who has been signed by Sporting clube De Goa.
"We are determined to do our best to serve football and have even taken players from the districts. This year we have two players from Madikeri and one from Mysore. We have also insured all the players," another assistant secretary Beschi Amalarasu said.