The poor start to the tournament didn’t stop the fans from believing and supporting it’s team. They gather in large numbers completely exhausting the audience capacity in the stadium. Fans wait late nights, early mornings in the hope to avail a few tickets for FC-Goa’s home matches. For those who don’t get a chance to watch live matches, people hold screenings of the matches at various places in Goa. FC-Goa is an Indian professional football franchise based in Goa that competes in the Indian Super League. The club was launched on 26 August 2014.
GAURDINHO – ENERGY SETTER
Out of the 8 franchises of the ISL, FC-Goa was the only team to have a mascot for it. The ‘Gaur’, happens to be the state animal of Goa. The enthusiasm that it brings out throughout the matches is unbelievable. It’s name ‘GAURDINHO’ has a samba touch bringing out the Brazilian feel in the team.
Official Club Logo
The FC Goa official club logo is a combination of Goa’s state animal, the ‘Gaur’ (Indian Bison) and a ‘Shield’. The gaur stands out ferociously to protect it’s turf or home-ground.
Brand Ambassador
FC-Goa has bollywood heartthrob Varun Dhawan as their brand ambassador who is pretty much a ‘power-package’ himself. He is a sports enthusiast and has shown his skills on-screen and off-screen as well. He makes sure he cheers his team either from the stadium for all the matches when FC-Goa is playing or from whichever corner of the world he is in. This year too, we will hopefully see Varun Dhawan come and cheer for his team !
Owners
The franchise is owned by Goan Football Club Pvt.Ltd. which used to consist of Dattaraj Salgaocar and Shrinivas Dempo, which is now bought by Jaydev Mody, Venugopal Dhoot and famous Indian cricketer Virat Kohli.
Coach
Arguably the world’s best player of the late 1970s and early 80s , Arthur Antunes Coimbra best known as Zico has been the coach for FC-Goa ever since the debut season of ISL (Indian Super League) in 2014. Though Goa had a slow start to the season, they ultimately qualified for the semifinals with a game in hand by defeating Chennaiyin FC. In 2015 FC Goa did really well to reach the final.Eventually it lost 3-2 to Chennaiyin FC.
What is so great about FC-Goa ?
FC- Goa unites Goa as a whole. It brings out the positivity and energy from Goans and supporters. To show their love for the team, fans organize bike rallies and thomp through the roads of the state, shouting out slogans. FC-Goa has a lot of supporters including bollywood celebs like Anushka Sharma, Raveena Tandon , Sonu Nigam, Sonakshi Sinha and Zayed Khan.
“It was disappointing yet exciting last year but this year hopefully we get to see a better season even though it had a bad start. I’m not happy with the pricing of the ticket as it is too expensive compared to last year. But whatever happens I still love FC-Goa !” – said Rohan Pinto an FC-Goa supporter.
While another young fan Priya Korgaokar enthusiastically says, “One strike, one moment is all it takes to silence the opposition. This is our Armour, our pride to be a true gaur.”
Objectives
- To create a huge Grassroots base in order to have a wider pool of Youth players to choose from.
- Creating a talent pool in which talented players come together to further improve themselves.
- And to continue their search for the next Romeo and Mandar who benefited from such programmes.
Over 1500 children between the age groups of 6 to 14 are currently being groomed by FC Goa.
