Anirudhha Footballer

Raja Baradwaj Rajagopalan (RBR as he calls himself in the historical stories that he writes online in Tamil) was a fiery character on and off the field at advertising agency O & M. One simply could not tie him down and he would stick to his guns like a typical Maduraiite. In a cricket match at the RKM Ground over 15 years ago, when he was pulled up for not gathering a difficult take (he was a wicket keeper), he threw down the gloves and asked that player to try his hand at keeping. Well over a decade later, his elder son too was into keeping but this time not in the game that Raja liked for long but in football as a ‘goal keeper’. 

A sportsman himself who played for the TVS school and the Madura College in the 1990s, Raja Baradwaj encouraged Anirudhha to get into sports at a very young age while they were in Dubai, where the father was a CRM consultant in the automobile space. Even as a one year old, Anirudhha would identify every car model that was out on sale. He was not yet 5 when he held a tennis and squash racquet and a golf club. Like his father he also held a cricket bat. But very soon, they were all dumped for the sport that has remained his passion for a large part of the last 10 years. He saw this game as one that kept your adrenalin flowing through the entire 90 minutes.

           Raja Baradwaj

He took to football as a puny boy (seen with his brother in the photo below) when his father put him on to the Arsenal Soccer School under the guidance of coach Gareth Hamilton soon after it was launched in Dubai. Anirudhha decided when he was 7 years old that Football was his future and since then, he has breathed football every minute of his life. He began watching the English Premier League and wanted to be one among them some day playing and scoring goals for his favourite club Arsenal. 

His younger brother Anantaa, who loves Rasam, too joined in Anirudhha’s footsteps into the football academy in Dubai. Since the younger brother's classes were 90 minutes ahead of his, Anirudhha too went along with him and used the free time to practice and be trained by his coach. Thus at every football session, he was practising 90 minutes more than the other boys in his group.

He was around 10 when he played in the Middle East Cup against boys from the Middle East who were physically taller and stronger but tiny little Aniruddha beat them for speed and surprised everyone with the goals he scored. The curd rice eating boy (Yes, that continues to be the favourite dish for this budding footballer!!!) became the tournaments 2nd highest goal scorer. 

Soon he was selected in the development squad that played against the Barcelona Soccer School. 

His coach, Ian Selley, the former Arsenal and England Lions Player, was impressed with his performance and pushed him into the U13 category but this time as a defender to block the stronger forwards of the opponents. And when the school ran short of a goal keeper, he was asked to be the goalie in one of the tournaments. Unfortunately, it was there that he experienced the first football injury as he fractured his hand trying to save a goal and was out of action for three months in 2017. He continued to be a goal keeper at the Goa Super Cup, the first time he played in India. His personal favourite as a coach has been Gary D’Souza, who now runs Kopana Soccer School, a well known academy in Mumbai.

While he was expecting to continue his football in Dubai, the sudden deterioration in his grandmother's health led to his father returning to India after almost 15 years in the Middle East. For a few months, Anirudhha had to make do with the football practice at his maternal uncle’s house where he began knocking the ball once again with his cousin brother as the goal keeper guarding the house gate which served as the goal post. 

It was through the football coach (Bhaskara Ryan) that his father found Great Goals, a leading football academy in Chennai run by two enterprising women, Priya and Sandhya. 

In the first few months of his football in Chennai, the then 12 year old Anirudhha found the physical methods of tackles quite intimidating. But when the coach saw his dribbling technique, he picked him in the developmental squad. 

In his first tournament in Chennai in 2018, Anirudhha, who was back to his favourite forward position, impressed everyone with his goal scoring ability. Just when things were looking up, he encountered the 2nd big injury of his football career. He twisted his ankle and was once again out of action for three months. He came back just in time to be included in the team for the iLeague in the U13 category. Coming back from injury, his coach asked him to don the role of a left back. While his left leg is dominant, Anirudhha has the advantage of being strong on both legs, a special feature for a footballer.

He did well in the iLeague and was looking forward to playing a key role in the U15 category this year when the announcement came that the age group categories were being moved to U12 and U14 from the previous U13 and U15. 

The 14 year old Anirudhha would have been in his final year in the U15 group and one as a senior boy in that age group. The decision of the league to change the age groups has shattered his confidence a bit for it came at the wrong time. 

And then to make matters worse, the COVID struck restricting football activities to the confines of his home. Over the last four months, he has stuck to following the online fitness regime handed out by his academy and improving his dribbling skills and techniques. But playing together physically as a team has been something he has missed sorely during the period of the lock down. 

This period has also coincided with his moving into Class X, the phase in life when parents typically move their children away from all sporting activities to focus on academics. Having played sports through his school and college, Raja Baradwaj has given Anirudhha all the freedom to continue with football on the condition that he should simultaneously work hard in his studies and balance the time between sport and academics. 

As a 14 year old, Anirudhha, for whom Science is of special interest, is grateful that his parents have given him that freedom to do what he likes best in life. And that’s football. He is hoping to register for a club in the U18 category as soon as the lock down is lifted for sporting activities and to play with 2-3 years his senior. He is confident that by the time he is 17, he will be ‘one among the best’ in the U18s. 

As any budding sports talent, Anirudhha too dreams of playing for the country one day. His legs are itching to get back to the football ground but for the moment he is stuck to watching the end of season battle in the English Premier League, where unfortunately his favourites the Gunners are out of the top five this season. 

This section will track the progress of this footballer