KOCHI: Spend some time interacting with Unni Paravannur and any scepticism or self-doubt one has about pursuing one’s dream vanishes.
Anyone who follows Indian football will tell you that trading a well-paid IT job in Bengaluru for the Calicut weather and the corridors of a stadium that offers no such privileges could be suicidal - but that is what Unni did.
After all, football is on the fringes of India’s sporting eco-system and it doesn’t hold the same allure or opportunities that a popular and cash-rich sport like cricket provides. But last Sunday, when I-League club Gokulam Kerala FC became only the second club from Kerala to lift the prestigious, and the oldest Cup competition in Asia - the Durand Cup - it was all worth it for this 37-year-old, who joined the club as its Operations Head last year.
It was after 22 years that a team from Kerala won the Durand Cup after the erstwhile FC Kochin - which had the likes of IM Vijayan and Jo Paul Ancheri - won it in 1997.
“When I was in I think 8th standard, Kerala football was at its peak. At that time, I used to follow the sport a lot. We had star players like Sathyan and Vijayan and Pappachan. After this peak phase, there was a dormant phase as we did not have any good players coming through,” Unni said.
This dormant phase in Kerala football coincided with Unni completing his engineering and getting a job in the IT industry. But his love for Indian football kept manifesting itself in different ways. Unni went onto start a Twitter handle called football news India and later did it on Facebook with great success. “At that time (around 2008), there was hardly any interest in Indian football. At the start of ISL, there were very few pages and mine and my handles started getting a lot of traction,” he said.
He maintained this ‘hobby’ alongside his work until Gokulam FC offered him the job of Operations Head at the club in 2018. Knowing that it was a new club which was established only in 2017, there were big risks involved. “I was in two minds because I was having a set job. But, my wife pushed me to pursue my dream. Then, I thought that maybe I should try this out,” he said.
Since taking up the job after 12 years in the IT industry which saw him work at companies like IBM and Lenovo, Unni has been constantly on the move. As the Operations Head, he has to make sure that the stadium is fully ready ahead of a match, take care of the AFC club licensing, draw up contracts for players, work as a liaison officer, arrange accommodation for the players, get accreditations done etc.
There are big sacrifices involved. Unni has to live apart from his wife who works in Bengaluru, he doesn’t have the same lucrative monetary comforts to fall back on and he works in an industry which is full of glorious uncertainties.
But it is nights like the ones at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata where Gokulam beat the mighty Mohun Bagan to win the trophy that makes it all worth it.