Having dropped out of school as a ninth grader, Shanmugam Venkatesh — named AIFF Player of the Year, 2004 — had no choice but to look for a career. And football it had to be. So, with the backing of elder brother Dakshinamurthy, he got footballing.Today, he stands at the pinnacle of his career, having enjoyed club success and now a personal landmark. But the man remains essentially the same. ‘‘Had it not been for my brother, I would have ended up doing something I was not meant to do,’’ Venkatesh (28) says.Born in Shreerampuram, near Bangalore, Venkatesh always dreamt of success. And his first step towards the Big Time was helping his school to the district title.That only fuelled the fire within. ‘‘The game attracted me so much I gave up everything else,’’ the Mahindra United medio says. Realising his ambition, Dakshinamurthy, an ex-international, got him on the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) team when he was 18.A good spell with ADE got him a contract with ITI and then, a position with the Karnataka team and, by 1997, he had moved to the next level. And Venkatesh confesses that it all happened primarily because of Dakshina.With the NFL happening, Salgaocar coach Shanmugam gave Venkatesh his next big break. ‘‘It was a dream break. Shanmugan sir had seen me during a coaching sting at ADE and followed me since then,’’ Venkatesh says.Here, the finishing touches were applied to raw natural ability. ‘‘It was because of all the senior players there covered for me when I was a junior in my first year,’’ he explains. ‘‘Players like Savio Mederia, Derrick Perreira, Bruno Couthino, Robert and Franky Barretto.I learnt a lot in those three years.’’The next step in his career came when Subash Bhowmick took him to East Bengal, with whom he had his most successful season. ‘‘Five trophies, India’s win in the LG Cup.2002-03 was some season’’, he says. After a year in Kolkata, however, Venkatesh was lured back to Mahindra United where he was party to the Mumbai squad’s best season ever.And, recently, he was even made captain of the national team during the World Cup tie against Singapore. Coach Stephen Constantine has a very high opinion of him, once saying, ‘‘He’s one of the most trusted guys on any day.’’So has he achieved everything? He replies: ‘‘Every day is a learning experience. Nothing can be totally achieved.’’
