His role model is India’s Pele, Bhaichung Bhatia, and he has played at the state and national level. T V Santosh Kumar is today a football coach and imparts special training to youngsters.
Every day he comes to the Sir M Visvesvaraya district playground to train champions. He once played for the junior national football team.
Santosh was born in Chikkaballapur and studied at Sir M V High School and completed his PUC in Panchagiri College. At the junior level he represented in the state and national teams and won several championships and prizes. Santosh played football for pretigious clubs and organisations and he would have been a part of the national team if he had the timely opportunities.
He became interested in football when he was studying in PUC and to achieve proficiency in this game he came to Bangalore. He got a place in the sub-junior national-level football in 1993. In the same year he played in the Mir Iqbal Championship.
“I developed friendship with the trainers and members of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) to find a place on the SAI hostel. I also joined the Mecons Football Club. Besides I joined the Government Science College and from 1995 to 1997 I represented the Bangalore University team. I played in the left wing back and mid-field position”, says Santosh.
“FC Cochin, a prominent football club was instrumental in setting up the United Bangalore Club. I became a member of this club and gained proficiency. In the hope of joining the Indian team I met well-known footballer Bhaichung Bhatia and Dinesh Kumar and sought their advice. However, I was not able to realise my ambition”, he says.
He obtained a degree and postgraduate degree in library science through the distance education mode from Alagappa University in Tamil Nadu. He is now doing his PhD. His thesis in on “Implementation of information technology in the libraries of Indian universities.” At present he works as a librarian in Government First Grade College in Chikkaballapur.
