PANAJI: Former Indian captain and Brahmanand Shankhwalkar goalkeeper is one of the recipients of the Padma scholarship for this year, winning the Padma Shri, the fourth highest of civil honor in the country.
Shankhwalkar, the first soccer player of Goa to Indian captain, is now the first sportsman of the country to be given Padma Shri.
Padma Shri was given for “distinguished services” and Shankhwalkar was chosen due to exemplary exploitation in the field and service for many games after he retired.
The 67-year-old player is currently the leader of the Football Council of Goa Development (GFDC), an independent body formed by former Minister of Manohar Parragar while expressing football as a sport as a state in 2012.
“I really don’t know what to say, I said -Kata, “Shankhwalkar Toi said on Tuesday.
“To be rewarded with Padma Shri is a great honor, not only for myself, but all football brotherhood.
I dedicated this to the Almighty, my parents, family and brotherhood of football supported by my career.
” Regarded as one of the best Indian goalkeepers, Shankhwalkar has a 25-year-old career that began in 1970 with Panvel Sports Club and peaked in 1995 with Anderson Marine.
In between, he did the task for Salgaocar SC (17 years) and Churchill Bros., but it was exploited with the national team which made him a household name and encouraged the state government to dedicate lessons in the school textbook in his life.
Shankhwalkar made more than 70 appearances for his country, besides the captain of the national team from 1983 to 1986.
For Goa, Shankhwalkar will forever remain a person who leads the country for two consecutive wins in Santosh Trophy in 1983 (Bengal) and 1984 (Tamil) Nadu).
In 1983, Goa was with a trophy with Bengal after the team failed to break the deadlock in Kolkata.
A year later, Goa won the trophy directly, beat Punjab 1-0 in the final.
The victory was sweet for Shankhwalkar when he equaled the national record leading his team to the title without conceding a goal.
In eight matches, a total of 720 minutes, he did not let his opponents score one goal.
In two editions of Santosh Trophy in 1983 and 1984, Shankhwalkar only conceded one goal.
Much after retirement, shankhwalkar remained very involved with sports, whether as a coach – India goalkeeper coach 1997-2005, India under-23 coaches – administrators with sesa fa or officials with the goa sports authority (SAG) where he began as a project officer, Then the secretary assistant and then rises to become director of coaching.
Visits to schools throughout the country are not known much.
According to a rough estimate, Shankhwalkar has visited more than 100 schools in different countries to interact and motivate students.
In 67, he was still active, whether it played soccer every day alternately with senior citizens in Porvorim or did his job as president of the founder of Goa Veteran Football Club and active members of the association for the welfare of Elder’s sportsmen (Awes).
While during his active playing day, his job is to keep the striker without compromise away, he does not take care of the purpose now, instead of looking to score every time the ball on his feet.
Shankhwalkar is the first Goan sportsmen to win Shri Padma
