The footballers and their coach (left) during a training session at Verna

PANAJI: They couldn’t have found a better coach, a better role model.

When 25 aspiring footballers gathered at the Panchayat Ground in Verna for their first training session, they were welcomed by an unfamiliar face. It was Prakash Khatri, and when he started speaking, his story resonated with each one of them. They listened in rapt attention. Each word that he spoke touched their heart. It was like they were hearing one of their own.

The young aspiring footballers, all below 14, were mostly from organisations and shelters dealing with orphans , single parents and children from slums and streets. They were called to be part of a new football club, and guiding them was Khatri, one of their own.

“I really do not know my age. I don’t know my parents. I don’t know where I was born, and when. I only remember sleeping on platforms and eating whatever I got. For my livelihood, I did odd jobs. I sold plastic bottles for a vada pav. Sometimes I got plain rice. For me, that was like biryani,” said Khatri.

Khatri found himself at the Apna Ghar and later at the Don Bosco shelter. Now, he is a double graduate, a qualified football coach and a respectable figure. Those 25-odd players who listened to him attentively will want to follow in his footsteps.

Unlike Khatri, they have an early chance and their vehicle to fight obscurity is football. Part of a newly-launched football team called Compassion FC, they will make their debut in the GFA U-14 League next month and hope to make a name for themselves.

“The club has been formed to provide a platform for these children, through football, to face a variety of complex issues, such as sexual and domestic abuse, unemployment, alcoholism, drug usage, malnutrition and mental health, that disengages them from society and prevents them from living a life of dignity,” said founder Kennedy D’Silva.

Compassion FC is the competitive football arm of the John Paul II Foundation for Sports – also founded by D’Silva – and has since 2012 been developing and teaching life skills through the medium of sports.

“Our aim through the club is to provide long-term solutions by providing a platform to develop and showcase their sporting talents and improve their living standards,” said D’Silva.

When training sessions were held for the first time at Verna, players had to be assembled from across the state. It wasn’t an easy task; there were players from Konseisanv Balgram Agnel Ashram in Verna, some others joined from the Fr Agnel Niketan, Pilar. There was a healthy number from the slums in Zuarinagar and elsewhere.

“The biggest challenge for us is transportation. It’s not easy to get all of them together in one place (for training). We are doing our best to ensure that they don’t suffer due to lack of training,” said D’Silva.

Compassion FC train three times a week at Verna. The club’s initial plan to field teams in both the Under-14 and Under-16 GFA leagues has been kept on hold. For this season, Compassion FC will only take part in the GFA U-14 League as participation in higher age-groups where they would have to rub shoulders with powerhouses like Dempo SC, Sporting Clube de Goa, Sesa FA and FC Goa may prove too demoralising.

“We will take one league at a time. These boys are determined and with a little bit of compassion from everyone, I am sure they will measure up to the challenge,” said D’Silva.

