Unsung Heroes | Former soccer player and ISL referee passes lessons on grit to underprivileged kids in Bengaluru

Annadurai, a soccer player from the Sports Authority of India’s hostel in Bengaluru, has moved from representing the state at the younger age group levels to playing for local clubs like the Southern Blues, teams run by government corporations like Bharat Electronics, to becoming an elite referee and a licensed coach.

In the course of his life in football, Annadurai has overcome many hurdles – from being forced out of school and a sports hostel in Tamil Nadu to working as a courier boy – to support his lower-middle-class family after the death of his father when he was in Class 9, to returning to school at the insistence of his mother and being picked as a 17-year-old to be among 30 talented players for the SAI soccer program in Bengaluru.

Annadurai has played in over 100 games at the top level of soccer in Bengaluru, he has officiated in over a 1,000 games as a referee at the state and national level and now also coaches children from 11 government schools and several migrant camps in a partnership between his four-year-old Ananta Sports Academy and local NGOs like the Gubbachi Learning Community – which is associated with the welfare of children from poor socio economic backgrounds in the southern eastern parts of Bengaluru populated by migrants.

“I have personally experienced the hardships of being a football player in India. My father passed away when I was in the ninth standard. At that time, I left school and started working to support my mother and siblings. I was working in a courier company, and then my mother realised that it was not worth it and that an education is important,” Annadurai recalled.

“We were financially weak. It was my father, who worked in the Air Force in a civil capacity, who got me into the sports hostel and school of the Neyveli Lignite Factory in Tamil Nadu after realising that I was good at sports and football,” Annadurai said.

“After I finished my Class 10 from Neyveli, I was selected by the Sports Authority of India in Bengaluru for the soccer program and studied at United Mission and Al Ameen College. I was in the SAI hostel for four years, and after I came out of the hostel, I tried to get a job in an organisation with a football team,” the former player recalled.

“The Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board had a team, and they offered me a position. I played for two years but did not get appointed, so I moved to BEL. I played for a year and moved to the Southern Blues club,” Annadurai added.

While at the Southern Blues club – which has a long history in Bengaluru’s subaltern football culture – Annadurai also obtained a coaching licence from the National Institute of Sports in Thiruvananthapuram in 2007 at the age of 21, and also began training to be a referee as he began preparing for life after being a semi-professional footballer.

Move to refereeing

“I was still playing at that time, and then my refereeing coach asked me one day how long I thought I could continue to play. ‘Can you play for India now?’ he asked, and suggested that I focus more on refereeing. From there, I started my path as a referee,” said Annadurai.

In 2013, Annadurai went for his first national football championship as a referee. He was also working as a full-time coach at the Prakriya Wisdom School in Bengaluru and as a part-time coach for the NGO Parikrama.

“When I became a national referee in 2013, there were a lot of tournaments I had to go to as a referee. This affected my work as a sports teacher – I could not go to my school’s own sports day. This was when I decided to take a step back and re-evaluate my goals,” he said.

Annadurai decided to quit his regular job as a sports teacher and took the plunge of starting a sports academy that extends soccer coaching facilities to schools for underprivileged and migrant children.

A partner in the form of a parent from the Prakriya Wisdom School, where he was a sports teacher, helped Annadurai set up the Ananta Sports Academy.

“One of the parents at Prakriya helped me. He was a football and sports enthusiast. He invested a bit, and I invested a bit. We have 10 schools, and now we have added another school at Ramagondanahalli this year. If there is funding, we can start coaching programs in more government schools around Bengaluru,” Annadurai said.

The soccer coaching program in government schools is conducted twice a week, with Annadurai supervising the program and using the services of seven coaches he has recruited. The Ananta Sport Academy coaching classes are conducted in several schools in Kodathi, Panathur, Bellandur, Haralur, B K Nagar, Gunjur, Kadubeesanahalli, and Bhoganahalli on the southeastern fringes of Bengaluru.

“I keep telling the kids I was once in their position and that it was hard work that has brought me to the position of a coach,” Annadurai said. “If we teach them 100 good things on the soccer ground or at school, there are 1,000 bad things that will happen when they go back home. It is hard to become positive, but it is a big blessing if they do,” he added.

“For the children of migrants, life is more challenging than it has ever been for me as a young person or an aspiring sports person. At least I had a platform of support through my parents, but these kids from migrant families do not have that. They are often the first generation in their families to attend school. They have not seen a real school,” Annadurai said.

Annadurai attributed his enduring association with football despite his limited successes to the conviction in life that he gained through the sport. “It is because of football that I have a conviction in life. It has given me recognition,” he said. “The reason for my longevity in the sport is also my own ambition to achieve more and more. Anything that comes in the way of my ambition, I avoid. I cycle around to stay more fit,” he added.

The advice the player-turned-referee-cum-coach has to offer to youngsters looking at committing to any sport is patience and resilience.

“Youngsters must not be in a hurry to achieve something, be it a sport or any other profession. Everything requires time, patience, and effort. They should try out things. There will be failures, but there will also be successes. Sometimes there will be only failures, and this must not cause a loss of focus and change of paths,” Annadurai said.

“I played in more than 100 matches in the Bengaluru football stadium. I did not go to a very high level, but I found new ways of being in the sport. In my exams to be a referee, I failed twice – once for fitness and once for theory. I bounced back by preparing well when given the next chance. The attitude should be ‘don’t give up,’” he added. Annadurai was on the I-League panel of referees from 2018 and was elevated to the ISL panel last year.

‘Light in the tunnel’

The referee-coach is of the view that, despite India’s lack of presence again at this year’s FIFA World Cup, there are far more opportunities in football in the country at present.

“Now there is a lot of potential for a career in football. There is a lot of exploration that today’s kids can do. Way back when I was a youngster, there were very limited opportunities. We only had the option of undergoing high-quality coaching at the Sports Authority of India and DYSS – the state department of youth and sports services,” Annadurai said.

“Outside Bengaluru, there was the Tata Football Academy (TFA) in Jamshedpur. Out of the lakhs of youths in the country, very few could make it to the TFA. The states also had the SAI system, but only 30 kids were admitted every year. There was no opportunity for more than 60 talented players to be groomed in Karnataka,” he added.

“Now there is no SAI for football in Bengaluru. However, there are now dozens of soccer academies run by private clubs. Some give scholarships, and some, like the Bengaluru Football Club, take care of everything for a player from education to accommodation to diet to training under the support of JSW,” Annadurai said.

“There is a light in the tunnel and a way for young people aspiring for a career in football through academies to clubs to the ISL, where players are paid well, and even play for India. In the previous era, there was no clear road map available for a career in football, and a player had to draw a picture himself for progress in a football career,” the 40-year-old remarked.

“With structured league systems being put in place starting from the under sevens, to under 10, under 12, under 15, under 17, under 21, the C division to the A division to the super division… there is some improvement in the management of the game. There is a scope for players to show their talent and try out for teams at many levels. Earlier, this was not there, and teams were reluctant to try out a new player for fear of embarrassment if the player did not measure up to standards. Now the scenario is such that if you play well, you will get into teams,” Annadurai said.

There is, however, also a change in the people taking up the sport in India, Annadurai observed.

“It is players from the middle class and upper middle class who are able to avail the opportunities that are opening up. The players from poor socio-economic backgrounds who earlier formed the core of Indian soccer players cannot afford to play in the new grounds, join academies, get good nutrition, or avail coaching which comes at a premium,” he said.