Publishing an article that appeared on Goa.Kranti a few days back (hope I will be not considered vain for including it in my blog page :)
FEBRUARY 12, 2013
VETERAN KUWAIT GOAN FOOT-BALLER JULIO CARDOSO.
Julio Cardoso
Julio Cardoso in action.
Further to the review in this forum on 10th of this month on the soccer matches played on 8th Feb.2013 in the morning at Sabah Hospital Ministry Ground, I like to add something more on the match between G.O.A. Maroons and Don Bosco.
It was during the first match that I noticed veteran Julio Cardoso guarding the citadel of Maroons under their bar. I was surprised to see Julio still doing so well under Maroons bar inspite of his age. As a young boy in 1979 when we first initiated our competitive soccer activities at Sour Grounds, Julio Cardoso was one of the best custodians among Indians in particular and expatriates in general. From then till now he is still maintaining somewhat the same form means something cannot be imagined. Immaculately maintaining his youthful presentation on and off the field, he still exhibits his youthful reflexes between the two posts and above the bar his punching the ball was same as it was in 1979 in an acrobatic style. It is an incredible feat to maintain such a high level of goalkeeping for over 34 years while all his 1979 colleagues have completely disappeared from the soccer field as footballers.
On Friday 8th of this month if it was not for his daring saves Maroons should have gone down by a further margin of 3 more sure goals but Julio saved Maroons of further embarrassment. Maroons is no more a powerhouse as it was before but Julio under its bar makes Maroons a force to reckon with. Julio is the only surviving footballer from the group that participated in the inception year in 1979. If any player needs to be decorated with honour it should be Julio for playing continuously such a long period and for that matter playing effectively an important role in the team among young players some of whom were not even born when he started his career in soccer in 1979 by playing competitive football.
I am happy that by witnessing the match on last Friday I got an opportunity to pen down a deserving eulogy of his extremely good game at this ripe age. What he did on soccer field none among us in Kuwait did.
Both his young and youthful daughters are very fortunate to see their loving Papa in action as a footballer while the same luck God has not given to both the daughters of the great Maradona when they wanted very much to see physically their Papa in action. Unfortunately for them their Papa Maradona meantime already retired from active soccer. What Maradona’s both the daughters missed Julio Cardoso’s both the daughters got.
Kuwait.
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