Kicking drugs they rose as football champions

A few houses away, a similar letter reached Dio’s house. It is a great feeling to play in front of a crowd. They clapped at my performance and I felt like a champion,’ the letter said. Dio’s mother kept reading it again and again. It had been very long since she had heard that her son had achieved something. Dio calls himself a black sheep’ but his mother doesn’t agree.

Ricky and Dio’s stories are unique because they came out of a battle with drug addiction. Andfootball gave them a new lease of life.

A dream came true for Ricky when he became the highest scorer for a local Delhi club — Royal Rangers — this year. Dio and team-mate Shiam were adjudged the best play-makers’ of the side. Their efforts were lauded widely in Delhi’s football circles. And Royal Rangers graduated to the higher division of Delhi’s football league.

I had never thought football could change lives,’ says Ricky, who is struggling to adjust to his newly-found stardom. He is still shy about answering queries. He opens up only when he describes how he landed in the Delhi club.

After completing his matriculation at Churitanpur in Manipur, Ricky stopped studying. Manipur is different from Delhi. Government jobs are beyond everybody’s reach and there is hardly any industry or factory that can employ the youth,’ says Ricky.

The result is frustration. Many turn to drugs to get away from the depression. Ricky, Dio and Shiam’s cases are no different. And they would have continued thus had itnot been for an employee of a rehabilitation centre in Delhi — Sahara Home. He came across the three boys when he was on vacation in Manipur. He convinced the boys to give up drugs and brought them to Delhi.

We were fed up with that life. It was all pain and frustration,’ recollects Dio, the eldest of three brothers and two sisters. But giving up the white powder’ or heroin, was not easy, especially for boys who have been addicted to it for seven years.

In Delhi, the first couple of months were tortuous. The boys had to cope with withdrawal symptoms’. They had severe body ache, suffered tremors. But with will-power Ricky, Dio and Shiam fought back. They had to be given heavy medication initially, mostly pain-killers.

They had some experience playing football early on in school, which is why Royal Rangers picked them out. The club is constituted mainly of former drug addicts.

Struggling with withdrawal, the three boys at first just kicked a ball around. Initially, we found that we had no energyand we used to get exhausted quickly,’ says Dio. They found it difficult to cope with the physical demands of a player. But they refused to give up. If football gives peace of mind’ to Ricky, Dio feels he is playing for the glory of God’.

The going got really tough for them when it came to dealing with societal pressures. It has not been easy to make people understand their situations. It hardly matter for them whether or not I am an ex-user. I don’t mind telling them the truth because it can’t be hidden.’ Their teammates, however, have been very supporting and just in their first year in football, the three youngsters have already become champions.