Sushanth Mathew | The Interview

Sushanth Mathew, from the beautiful village of Ambalavayal, Wayanad, is a Kerala footballer who has been around the main scene of Indian football for a while. We caught up with the Red Devils star in an exclusive footballkerala interview......

Young Sushanth showed glimpses of his skills for his school team, from where he pursued his footballing career to a local club named the Dyna FC. Sushanth did his graduation from Farook College, Calicut where he represented the University team.

The first major breakthrough in his career, as he says, came when he was called for the Kerala Santhosh Trophy camp at Cochin. "This helped me to join the FC Cochin in the season 1997-98", Sushanth remembers.

3 years at FC Cochin, where he played alongside his childhood hero IM Vijayan, he was acquired by Vasco Goa. Another 3 years of consistent performances at the goan club, earned him a move to one of the biggest and most professional football club in India - the Mahindra United.

"The presence of national team players and talented foriegners has helped me a lot to improve my game"; Sushanth has been the first choice defender for Mahindra United since his move from Goa to Mumbai.

Into his 5th year with the Jeepmen, we asked Sushanth about the departed coach and how he is lookiing forward to the challenges ahead.

"I have a special emotional relation with coach Derek (Perreira). I have played under him at Vasco and here at the Mahindra. I credit much of my success to the coach."

He also has words of praise for his new coach, the English, David Booth. "Mr. Booth's training methods are excellent." He looks forward at working with him and winning more silverwares for the club.

Sushanth Mathew returned from a disappointing Santosh Trophy at Tamil Nadu, where Kerala was knocked out by Maharashtra side very early for the liking of the fans.

"The team performance was a bit low. Maharashtra were very professional and worked hard to create the result." He also added that, "The selecters should ensure that the best players born in Kerala must play for the state in the Santosh Trophy."

"Kerala is abundant of prodigies and the people concerned must make sure that they do their best to present a team which is capable of getting up atleast to the final." He insists that the youth development must be ensured in Kerala.

Last week, Sushanth had a collision with his teammate and captain, KN Ajayan, during a training session leaving the latter injured at the arm which was recovering from a fracture.

He says, "I have played alongside Ajayan for 6 years. I have a distinct acquaintance with him." "As a player he will be missed a lot, but he is always with us as our Captain."

Do you have any plans for the future?
"I am looking forward to play a season at Kolkata too", he replied.

Favorite Indian footballer?
IM Vijayan

Favorite International footballer?
Zinedine Zidane

Favorite teams?
Mahindra United, Argentina

Before winding up our session, he added:

"നിങ്ങള്‍ ചെയ്യുന്ന ഈ വലിയ സംരംഭം വിജയമായി തീരട്ടെ എന്ന് ഞാന്‍ ആശംസിക്കുന്നു ."

From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Friday 24 July 2009, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.