The Vallavur Nagar street festooned with the colours of Brazil and Argentina as the residents soak in the FIFA World Cup fever.
| Photo Credit: Serish Nanisetti
Sam steps out of his home in Vallavur Nagar in Sainikpuri bouncing a yellow football with his head. He makes it bounce five times before he loses control and then he dribbles towards the Vallavur Nagar passing larger-than-life posters of Lionel Messi, Ronaldo and a host of other international football stars. The street is festooned with flags of Brazil and Argentina as most of the residents are fans of the two countries and their star strikers. The oversized posters dwarf the motorists who stop and take a second glance. The Vallavur Nagar Football Club ground itself is half the size of a regular football field ringed by apartment complexes. “I come to play here for only one hour. My parents want me to study. I love football. I love Neymar, but my parents want me to study and I have to be back home by 7 p.m.,” says Simeon Jaden, a class VIII student of St Joseph School in Lal Bazaar.Sitting outside his home is K. Shekhar who says he captained the Andhra Pradesh football team in the 1985 National Games where the team lost to eventual winner Delhi. “This area including Bollarum, Jai Jawan Colony, G.K. Colony and Ammuguda produced some of the best footballers of the country. There was a craze. I began playing football using a tennis ball,” says Sekhar, reminiscing about the time when he worked in Allwyn and got job offers from DRDL, Railways and even Police Department.But when Sekhar was playing, the glory days of Hyderabad football were long past. But in a different era, Hyderabad was a powerhouse of football with players like Peter Thangaraj, Tulsidas Balaram, Syed Abdul Rahim, Victor Amalraj and a host of other kicking ball and making their mark. The peak of that success story was in the 1950s.
