Kerala octogenarian coach Rufus D’Souza, who still trains 40-50 at his first ground, is rooting for Messi

As one who closely analyses all football matches, D’Souza is disappointed that 'out of 90 minutes, the ball is played forward only for 20 minutes’ and thinks India’s women’s team is better than its men’s team.

Written by: Vandana Kalra

5 min readKochiUpdated: Dec 17, 2022 08:52 PM IST

Football coach Rufus D’Souza with his students. (Express photo)

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Kerala octogenarian coach Rufus D’Souza, who still trains 40-50 at his first ground, is rooting for Messi

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On Sunday evening, football coach Rufus D’Souza will make an exception to his daily routine of going to bed at 8.30pm. The 88-year-old, who has been training generations of players at Parade Ground in Kochi since 1970, will stay up late to watch the FIFA World Cup final between Argentina and France.

“Usually I watch the highlights, but the World Cup happens only once in four years and calls for an exception,” says D’Souza. He will be cheering for Argentina, not because he thinks it has a better team, but for Lionel Messi. “This is his last World Cup and Argentina has never won the cup with him in the team. It will be a good way for him to retire,” says D’Souza.

Students of the “football uncle”, as D’Souza is endearingly called, include former junior Indian team captain P P Thobias, former Indian national players Feroz Sherif, K A Anson, Sebastian Netto, and the late Hamilton Bobby and Kerala Football Association secretary Anil Kumar.

Last year, Madridista, the Real Madrid fans club in Spain, felicitated him in Kochi and gifted him with a signed jersey of Iker Casillas, captain of the Spanish team that won the 2010 World Cup. “I felt honoured. The love and respect I get from my students are my biggest blessings and most valuable to me,” says D’Souza.

The octogenarian has represented Tamil Nadu in both hockey and football. In 1954, he captained the Travancore-Cochin team in hockey, and in 1972 he was captain of the Kerala hockey team. He played for many other clubs before joining State Bank of India in 1962. Although he never played football at the national level, D’Souza was part of the 1962 Asian Games football camp. “I don’t regret not making it to the national team. There were players who were better than me and deserved to be in the team,” he says.

His dedication to the game takes him to Parade Ground at 5.30am every day, where he trains 40-50 youngsters for free. This is also where he started his football training at the age of seven. “In the ‘50s, the ground was one of the best in India. It was maintained by the British and had been converted into a playground with grass from Australia. Every year, before the monsoon, the English used to play rugby matches, and once the rains began no one was permitted to play or work on the ground for the next two months. This was the case till 1960, when I left for Madras,” says D’Souza. He recalls Olympic gold medallist R S Gentle visiting the ground in 1957, when the All-India School National Hockey Tournament was being held at Maharaja’s Ground, Ernakulam. “He was the world’s greatest penalty corner specialist and had come to Ernakulam as a guest of the Bombay hockey team. He had scored the winning goal against Pakistan in the 1956 Olympics at Melbourne. He came to Parade Ground as a guest for a match between Gymkhana Club and Cochin Select. On entering the ground, he told me that this is an Olympic park. He took the stick, asked the goalkeeper to move from the post and said he would take a shot in which the ball would deflect after hitting the side planks. It was amazing,” says D’Souza.

D’Souza believes that though India has talented football players, the country dismally lacks training facilities for them. “Earlier, we had so many tournaments and clubs in India… We also need to hire Indian coaches. We need to play with good teams. The Indian women’s national football team is doing so much better than the men’s team,” he says.

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With his students, discipline is key. “No foul language, and anyone who is late for practice is sent back,” says D’Souza. Some bending of rules is allowed because of the World Cup, though. “Since they stay up late to watch the matches, I have been giving them off days,” he says.

As one who closely analyses all matches, D’Souza is disappointed. “In over 80 years, I have watched over 20 football World Cups, earlier on tapes and now on television. Earlier, out of 90 minutes, the ball was played forward for 70 minutes. Now out of 90 minutes, the ball is played forward only for 20 minutes. It is not good football,” he says.

Tucked in a corner at his house in Fort Kochi is a small plastic bag that has his first football—a pink cloth ball his mother stitched when he was three. “It’s the first ball I kicked,” says the coach.

Vandana Kalra

Vandana Kalra is an art critic and Deputy Associate Editor with The Indian Express. She has spent more than two decades chronicling arts, culture and everyday life, with modern and contemporary art at the heart of her practice. With a sustained engagement in the arts and a deep understanding of India’s cultural ecosystem, she is regarded as a distinctive and authoritative voice in contemporary art journalism in India. Vandana Kalra's career has unfolded in step with the shifting contours of India’s cultural landscape, from the rise of the Indian art market to the growing prominence of global biennales and fairs. Closely tracking its ebbs and surges, she reports from studios, galleries, museums and exhibition spaces and has covered major Indian and international art fairs, museum exhibitions and biennales, including the Venice Biennale, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Documenta, Islamic Arts Biennale. She has also been invited to cover landmark moments in modern Indian art, including SH Raza’s exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the opening of the MF Husain Museum in Doha, reflecting her long engagement with the legacies of India’s modern masters. Alongside her writing, she applies a keen editorial sensibility, shaping and editing art and cultural coverage into informed, cohesive narratives. Through incisive features, interviews and critical reviews, she brings clarity to complex artistic conversations, foregrounding questions of process, patronage, craft, identity and cultural memory. The Global Art Circuit: She provides extensive coverage of major events like the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Serendipity Arts Festival, and high-profile international auctions. Artist Spotlights: She writes in-depth features on modern masters (like M.F. Husain) and contemporary performance artists (like Marina Abramović). Art and Labor: A recurring theme in her writing is how art reflects the lives of the marginalized, including migrants, farmers, and labourers. Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025) Her recent portfolio is dominated by the coverage of the 2025 art season in India: 1. Kochi-Muziris Biennale & Serendipity Arts Festival "At Serendipity Arts Festival, a 'Shark Tank' of sorts for art and crafts startups" (Dec 20, 2025): On how a new incubator is helping artisans pitch products to investors. "Artist Birender Yadav's work gives voice to the migrant self" (Dec 17, 2025): A profile of an artist whose decade-long practice focuses on brick kiln workers. "At Kochi-Muziris Biennale, a farmer’s son from Patiala uses his art to draw attention to Delhi’s polluted air" (Dec 16, 2025). "Kochi Biennale showstopper Marina Abramović, a pioneer in performance art" (Dec 7, 2025): An interview with the world-renowned artist on the power of reinvention. 2. M.F. Husain & Modernism "Inside the new MF Husain Museum in Qatar" (Nov 29, 2025): A three-part series on the opening of Lawh Wa Qalam in Doha, exploring how a 2008 sketch became the architectural core of the museum. "Doha opens Lawh Wa Qalam: Celebrating the modernist's global legacy" (Nov 29, 2025). 3. Art Market & Records "Frida Kahlo sets record for the most expensive work by a female artist" (Nov 21, 2025): On Kahlo's canvas The Dream (The Bed) selling for $54.7 million. "All you need to know about Klimt’s canvas that is now the most expensive modern artwork" (Nov 19, 2025). "What’s special about a $12.1 million gold toilet?" (Nov 19, 2025): A quirky look at a flushable 18-karat gold artwork. 4. Art Education & History "Art as play: How process-driven activities are changing the way children learn art in India" (Nov 23, 2025). "A glimpse of Goa's layered history at Serendipity Arts Festival" (Dec 9, 2025): Exploring historical landmarks as venues for contemporary art. Signature Beats Vandana is known for her investigative approach to the art economy, having recently written about "Who funds the Kochi-Muziris Biennale?" (Dec 11, 2025), detailing the role of "Platinum Benefactors." She also explores the spiritual and geometric aspects of art, as seen in her retrospective on artist Akkitham Narayanan and the history of the Cholamandal Artists' Village (Nov 22, 2025). ... Read More

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