Shocking: This I-League-winning striker working as a daily wage labourer to make ends meet: Report

Bineesh Balan with Beto during his stint in Churchill Brothers. Image Source: Twitter

Xtra Time Web Desk: Former I League winning striker Bineesh Balan has been working as a daily wage labourer to make his ends meet. At a time when footballers in the country are being well looked after as far as financial requirements are concerned, the story of Balan is definitely shock the football fans. Balan, a promising striker from Thissur in Kerala won multiple titles with Churchill Brothers—two Durand Cup trophies, one Federation Cup, and two I-League titles— and was expected to break into the national team soon.

In a report in Hindustan Times, an injury he suffered in 2014-15 season proved costly as he was not signed by any other clubs. Pune FC itself folded in 2015. He also registered for the 2015 Indian Super League (ISL) auctions but went unsold. Six years after the former I-League winning forward vanished from the national football scene, Balan is struggling to make his ends meet. In order to earn his living the striker is working in his home town as a daily wage labourer, doing carpentry, painting and loading and unloading trucks.

In an interview to Hindustan Times, Balan said, “I don’t have any work right now. My situation is very bad at the moment.”

“Now I am working as a daily wage labourer in different places. My father worked as a coolie (porter), but he is too old to work now; my mother is a homemaker. I have a wife and a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, and my family is dependent on me. Now with the coronavirus pandemic, the situation is even more difficult,” Balan said.

“My father and I have tried to approach the government. I tried for jobs, and met several officials. We even went to the Kerala sports ministry with my certificates, but they did not take it in a serious way,” added the former India youth international and Tata Football Academy alumnus.