When Farook College lifted the Kozhikode District ‘A' Division football league title at the Corporation Stadium on Saturday, the team was not just realising a dream. It was creating history too.
It was for the first time that an educational institution was being crowned as the ‘A' Division champion in the Kozhikode football league in its history of more than five decades.
For Akbar Siddique, who retired from the college as the Head of Department of Physical Education last March, this was a moment he had been waiting for 26 years. “I have built this team with a lot of passion and was getting frustrated that we could not win the ‘A' Division title, despite coming close on many occasions,” he said. “We have been playing in the ‘A' Division for the last 18 years, longer than any of the current teams, and were the runner-up on three occasions. I am delighted that Farook became the first non-club team to win the league, though there have been good teams from Guruvayurappan College, Malabar Christian College and Govt. Medical College.”
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In the final, Farook defeated Leaders via the tie-breaker. The teams were level 2-2 in regular time.
Akbar was feeling so tense that he did not go to watch the final. Irshad Hassan, who took over from him, was there.
“We should have won the final more comfortably,” Irshad said. “And we played the final without six of our first-choice XI; some of them were under suspension, including our captain and best defender, best goalkeeper and best striker.”
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Collective effort
He said just about everyone contributed to the team's success. “Still players like defender K.P. Mansoor, midfielder K. Sabith and forward K.K. Sadiq stood out,” he said.
Interestingly, the current team contains just one player from Kozhikode district; all the others are from Malappuram, Wayanad and Palakkad districts.
“We scout for talents in different places and convince promising footballers to join our college,” Akbar said. “If we had more support from the college management, we could have attracted even more talents; they are not even willing to admit a few players outside the sports quota. That too, when the college is doing so well in sport; we have also won the Kozhikode District ‘A' Division cricket league.”