Manorama Club Award: Parappur FC have bigger goals to chase
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Parappur is the cradle of football in central Kerala. Parappur FC, one of the six finalists of the Manorama Sports Club award 2020-21, is committed to boost grassroots football in the region and unearth hitherto unknown talents for the future.
After a modest beginning 10 years ago with 50 children, the club, located about 15 kilometres from Thrissur city, now provides training to over 300 aspiring footballers. Over the years, Parappur FC have grown into a full-fledged club, and currently, their age-group teams are taking part in the youth I-League in U-13, U-15, and U-18 categories.
In the past two years, 11 players nurtured by the club have gone on to represent Kerala at the sub-junior level. Besides, the club has contributed five players to the Kerala junior team, and one to the state Santosh Trophy team. One product of the Parappur FC has also donned the national colours in the junior category.
Parappur FC is the brainchild of C C Hanson, who has played for SBT Thiruvananthapuram and the Goa-based Churchill Brothers. It was his dream to have a professional club from his village in India's top-tier football league. To realise that dream, he took a personal loan of Rs 1.25 crore and built a soccer team from scratch.
Football is in the DNA of Parappur as this quaint village has produced many highly talented players over the years. One of them is C V Pappachan, former India international and a key member of the magnificent Kerala Police team which won the prestigious Federation Cup in 1990 and 1991. The other top talents to have emerged from Parappur include Pappachan's siblings C V Sunny and C V Johny, Azeez, M J Antony and K T Thomas.
It was in 2012 that Hanson, who served as Superintendent at the Customs and Central Excise Department, sowed the seeds of Parappur FC with an aim to keep his native village's rich legacy in the sport intact. It was not an easy task. He went on a talent hunt and visited around 100 schools across Kerala. From the 3,000 children who showed keenness to join the new club, he handpicked 50 and started giving training to them in 2016. In 2017, a residential academy was set up.
In the first year itself, five of his wards made it to the state sub-junior team. In the next two years, 11 Parappur FC products went on to represent Kerala in different age-group categories. The academy received a 2-star rating from the All India Football Federation under the academy accreditation programme and earned the Kerala Premier League and the I-League membership. Today, the club imparts specialised football training to over 350 children free of cost. Most of the trainees are from rural areas in Kerala.
The club has recently purchased a 6.5-acre plot to construct a modern football ground and a new administrative building. Sanjay Kumar is the chief coach at the academy while P J Jose and Afsal Shukkoor are his assistants. President P O Sebastian, vice-presidents C B Mukundan and A S Lal take care of the club's day-to-day activities.