With the World Cup round the corner, we got our own Football greats of yesteryears to talk on their playing days and views on this World Cup. Today, we feature Goa’s ace goalkeeper, Brahmanand Shankhwalkar who presently is the Director of coaching with the Sports Authority of Goa.

Brahmanand Shankhwalkar’s career in football spanned for 25 years. He speaks about how he began playing football, the clubs he represented and also his views on this World Cup.
I started off playing at the Taleigao village football level.  Soon my colleagues started noticing something special in my goalkeeping skills. Dr Remiz Pinto was one of my first mentor, who would give me magazines on football and goalkeeping. I represented my school which was Progress High school for two years and whilst at school itself I stated playing for Panvel sports Club. That was from 1970-74.
Meanwhile I completed my college studies at Dhempe’s College and then moved to Salgaocar Sports Club in 1974. I played for this club for almost 17 years till 1991. In 1991, I moved to Churchill Brothers where I played for four years and then moved to Anderson Marine for a year.
I represented Goa for many years in the Santosh Trophy, right from 1973 till 1994, excluding a couple of years on account of injury or the Asiad Games. My proudest moment was in 1983 when Goa drew with Bengal after matching them for 210 minutes. I still have the ball which was played for that match.
The next year we won the match outright and I did not concede a single goal throughout the tournament, thus beginning a new phase in Goan football.
I represented India from 1975 till 1986, and was the captain of India in 1983 and 1986. I recall the year 1977, when we toured Zambia. I did so well that everyone was impressed with my goalkeeping skills so much so that they nicknamed me as ‘leopard’. I also played in two Asiads.
Coming to awards won by me, well I am proud to say that I am a recipient of the Arjuna Award in 1998 and was awarded the Player of the Decade in 1996.  My career spanned for 25 years, but my love for Goa prevented me from playing for any club outside Goa, although I received many lucrative offers at that time.
With the World Cup just a few days away, I hope that Brazil does well and my heart is with them. Yet I am sure and confident that Argentina will do very well, on account of Diego Maradonna being the coach. This team has also scrapped through and qualified, thus they should play with all their emotions.