THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It was in 2001 that M C Vasisht, a history professor at Malabar Christian College, Kozhikode, penned a song on football. His ardent love for the game and the FIFA World Cup were the motivating factors that fuelled his imagination.
Even as he wanted to share the verses with the million football lovers across the world, lady luck smiled on him when it caught the attention of then FIFA magazine editor Andreas Werz. The song was published in the FIFA magazine of 2001 in four different languages-- English, Spanish, German and French.
“I wrote the poems - one about the game of football and the other about a former FIFA president Joao Havelange as I am mad about football and of course poetry. After completing the work, I felt that it should be shared with many like-minded people and sent the poems to FIFA magazine by post. I couldn’t hide my pleasure when I received a letter from the editor of the magazine saying he was willing to publish my poem, Football,” recollects Vasisht.
Apart from the published work, the professor had also penned poems on the Beautiful Game titled ‘World Cup Football’, ‘Samba Soccer’ which is on Brazilian soccer and ‘Black Pearl’, a poem on Brazilian football legend Pele.
Almost 13 years after the poem was published in the FIFA magazine, recently, the video of the song was created none than his student I M Suraj who is working in an ad agency in Kochi and put to tune and sung by Sai Giridhar, another student.
The four-minute song was telecast by various TV channels across the country. “I consider it as a great privilege to have received this opportunity to watch the video on TV channels 13 years after it was published by FIFA in their magazine,” said the professor.
Malabar, especially Kozhikode, has always held football close to its heart. When the whole world is gearing up to celebrate yet another World Cup soon, Kozhikode has something to be proud of as the sound of its words ‘A Game so called Football.. lingers.