The formation of Goa Football Development Council and inauguration of its premises at Patto, Panjim, by our chief minister is the best news for sports people.
The praises for ex-footballers expressed by principal Secretary B. Vijayan brought tears of joy, especially of his remembrance of a historic phrase, popularly known as ABCD of Goan Football. They were the stalwarts of Goan Football. Andrew a superb centre-forward, Bernard a jet speed runner, who could take the ball straight from the centre and score, Catao a condifent midfielder and Dominic a magician, who could dribble past 3 to 4 defenders over the line and feed Andrew with his excellent skill.
I had the honour to play with Andrew during my school days at St. Andrews Institute at Vasco da Gama, as he was my classmate then. During the 15 minutes of recess, we used to run to the football ground just few meters away from our school, which was then known as Salgaocar ground, then Municipal ground and finally Tilak ground. By then, he was already a professional player. Before joining Clube Desportivo Vasco da Gama, now known as Vasco Sports Club, Andrew donned colours for his local Club known as "Guerristos" (Warriors) based at Non-Mon Vasco da Gama. Vasco Sports Club was then run by a strong football lover B.M. Parkkot, who treated Andrew like a real hero and I remember once Andrew was specially flown to Calcutta to play against East Bengal when all other players had travelled by train. Vasco Sports Club, as Vijayan remembers, had an unbeatable team of players such as Rosemond, Satyan, Sudhir, Avinder Singh, Rafael, Ambrose and many more, besides ABCD. Caetaninho and Goes Brothers were also part of the team then.
Andrew D'Souza passed away a year ago and I had an opportunity to attend his funeral, but I did not hear any eulogy nor see anyone from the Goa Football Association(GFA) at the funeral service. I would like to request our chief minister to consider re-naming the Tilak Ground after this great son of the soil, one of the best footballers of Goa ever produced -Andrew D'Souza.
