There's nothing like old wine - strong, mellow with a rich lingering taste. The older it is the better it is, they say. Vasco Sports Club presently celebrating its golden jubilee boasts of a glorious past in the history of Goan football having had the choicest of players in its ranks. Formerly known as Clube de Desportos Vasco da Gama and affectionately called as "The Clube", Vasco is the oldest registered club in Goa.
Vasco represented the true spirit of Goan football with players of high calibre and intelligence donning its colours and drawing huge crowds wherever it played. It rubbed shoulders with the best clubs including Mafatlal Sports Club, Fafa Sports Club, Dempo and Salgaocar Sports Club and Calcutta giants Mohammedan Sporting, Mohun Bagan and East Bengal.
Vasco, in its maiden outing in the National Football League last year earned the fifth place, indicating the calibre of this illustrious club and portending a successful future. In this year's edition of the NFL, the team is doing well despite injuries to its key players. And this year too, it will be looking to remain in the top five, according to its chief patron, Noel de Lima Leitao.
In the State's top league competition, Vasco has never once been demoted since the club was founded in 1951. After it took off on a high note by winning the Goan league title in 1952-53, Vasco hit some rough patches at the time of the liberation of Goa in 1961 and was at its peak from 1966 until 1980.
The club came into prominence under the dynamic leadership of the late B M Parkott, hailing from Kerala, who became Vasco's chief patron in 1964-65. Ably assisted by his nephew T K Unni, another die-hard football fanatic, Parkott steered the club to dizzying heights of fame of glory.
It was during this period that Vasco's crack forwardline with their dazzling soccer came to be known as A-B-C-D of Goan football - a fitting tribute to the super strikers, Andrew D'Souza, Bernard, Catao and Domnic, who terrorised rival goalkeepers and melted the hearts of opposing players with their uncanny coordination and brilliant ball play.
Other big names that Vasco boasted of include the great Sheikh Aboo, Correia, Mario, Joaquim Goes, Rodrigues, Caetano, Ireneu, Neves, Pinha, Minu, Vivian Furtado, Shivraj, Lazarus, Keshav Vernekar, O K Satyan, Ramkrishna, George Rosemond, EN Sudhir, George Ambrose, T K Chatunni, Suhas Walke, Vallabh Mhambrey, Sebastian Menezes, Joseph Raphael, Arvinder Singh, Raha and Olympian Peter Thangaraj, the legendary goalkeeper.
Donning the white and black uniform with a cross emblazoned on it, the marauding Vasco men weaved magic, coming up with awe-inspiring performances and drawing fanatic support from hordes of fans in every state.
With Parkott at the helm, Vasco brought back almost every major trophy from Kerala. It was twice winners of Chakola Gold Trophy in 1973, 1974 and Kerala Trophy in 1968, 1969. The club also won the Sait Nagjee Trophy, Calicut, in 1969 and KFA Shield, Changacherry, in 1973.
Besides Kerala, they also made forays in Bombay and bagged the Western India Football Association Trophy in 1966. The club also made its mark in Bangalore winning the Stafford Cup in 1969 and was runners-up in the Puttaiah Memorial Tournament, 1978.
It had to be content with being the runners-up at Rovers Cup in 1966 and 1972. Mammen Mappillai Trophy, Kottayam, Gwalior Gold Cup, Bordoloi Shield and Nehru Memorial Tournament were the other tournaments that featured Vasco. In 1979 and 1969 it was joint winner of G V Raja Trophy, Trivandrum and Mammen Mappillai Trophy, Kottayam, respectively.
After the demise of B M Parkott the club's strength slowly waned. It further declined when the Bandekar group withdrew support. Despite indifferent performances in the State league and poor management, however, it retained a prominent position among the top five Clubs in Goa.
By the late eighties, the club was on the brink of relegation to second division when Noel de Lima Leitao stepped in and along with other like-minded football oriented businessmen, Savio Messais, Stanley Pereira and Vinod Parkott, the son of late BM Parkott, revived the fortunes of the club. Together they pumped in money and left no stone unturned to restore the club its lost glory.
Noel, who is a well known Star TV commentator and a fine football strategist in his own right, says: "From 1993, we started rebuilding and now we are back in contention as a team to be respected. We shall be keeping the pressure on the other teams in India in the foreseeable future."
Noel who was the president of the club for nearly a decade, relinquished the post in 2000 immediately after Vasco qualified for the NFL, the premier tournament in the country.
The president of the Club at present is Vinod Parkott while Noel is the chief patron and Derrick Pereira the coach. The club's official sponsor is Arlem Breweries, part of the well known Chowgule Group from Goa.
Vasco which boasts of being the first people's club from Goa, has added another feather to its cap when it became the first football club in the country to host a website (www.vascoclub.com). Besides online merchandising of Vasco team jerseys, colours and other paraphernalia, it has also launched a membership drive open to any soccer lover.
The club has embarked on a youth development programme in order to develop its own stables and achieve self-reliance and is the only club in India with U-10, U-13, U-15, U-17, U-19 and Senior teams. As Noel says: "We believe we have a future and we are taking steps to secure it".
Vasco Sports Club has certainly uncorked itself without letting out too much fizz.