Vatta Parambath Sathyan (29 April 1965 – 18 July 2006), popularly known as V. P. Sathyan, was a former Indian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played the

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either ...

position. He was the captain of the

India national football team The India national football team represents India in international football and is governed by the All India Football Federation (AIFF). The team is affiliated to FIFA and Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Indian team, which was once cons ...

from 1991 to 1995. He was named the 1992 AIFF Player of the Year.

Career

Sathyan started his career in 1983 representing

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

in the Santosh Trophy National Championship. He attended the South Zone camp for Indian probables under Amar Bahadur in 1985. Strongly built and a capable defender, he joined the national team for the 1985 SAF Games in Dhaka. By 1986, he had represented the country in the

Nehru Cup The Nehru Cup was an international association football tournament organised by the All India Football Federation (AIFF), named after the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. It was launched in 1982, but was not held from 1998 to ...

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram (; ), also known by its former name Trivandrum (), is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. It is the most populous city in Kerala with a population of 957,730 as of 2011. The encompassing urban agglomeration populati ...

and in the Seoul Asian Games. Sathyan was a key member of the Kerala Police Football team which won the Federation Cup twice in 1989–90 and in 1990–91. He went from the Kerala Police team to

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

in 1991, where he played for two seasons, one in Mohammedan Sporting Club and one in

Mohun Bagan Mohun Bagan Athletic Club is an Indian professional sports club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. Founded in 1889, its football section is one of the oldest in India and Asia. The club is most notable for its victory over East Yorkshire Regiment ...

before returning to the Kerala Police again and then moving to

Indian Bank Indian Bank is an Indian public sector bank, established in 1907 and headquartered in Chennai. It serves over 100 million customers with 39,734 employees, 5,721 branches with 5,428 ATMs and Cash deposit machines. Total business of the bank has ...

in 1996. Sathyan served first as a player from 1995 to 2001 and then as the team's coach. In 1991, Sathyan became the captain of the Indian team for the World Cup qualifiers in

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and

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

. He led the Indian team to a gold medal in the 1995 SAF Games in Madras (Present Chennai). He also led Kerala to the Santosh Trophy title in 1992. Sathyan was the

AIFF Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) is an audio file format standard used for storing sound data for personal computers and other electronic audio devices. The format was developed by Apple Inc. in 1988 based on Electronic Arts' Interchange File ...

player of the year in 1992. As a coach, he was an assistant to Stephen Constantine in 2002 when India toured South Korea.

International goals

:''Scores and results list India's goal tally first.''.

Personal life

VP Sathyan was born on 29 April 1965 in Mekkunnu near

Chokli Panoor is a Municipality in the district of Kannur in the state of Kerala, India. The town is the main market place for the farmer communities in the surrounding regions. Panoor is one of the main suburbs of the City of Thalassery. Panoor got mu ...

, Kannur district, to Vatta Parambath Gopalan Nair and Narayani Amma. He was married to Anitha, who is now working as a clerk at the Sports Council Office in Kozhikode and had a daughter Athira, who got married in 2017. Unfortunately, VP Sathyan committed suicide by jumping to an oncoming train in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

on 18 July 2006 because he was suffering from depression due to the lack of recognitions/credits/awards he received and the lost of wealth after retirement from his football career.

In popular culture

The 2018 Indian biographical film '' Captain'' is based on Sathyan's life.

Jayasurya Jayasurya (born August 1978) is an Indian actor, distributor, Sponsor, Model, film producer, playback singer, and impressionist, who works in the Malayalam films. He has appeared in more than 100 films and has won several awards, including a N ...

portrayed Sathyan in the film, while Anu Sithara played his wife, Anitha. In 2019, Jayasurya won the

Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor The Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor is an honour, begun in 1969, presented annually at the Kerala State Film Awards of India to an actor for best performance in a Malayalam film. Until 1997, the awards were managed directly by the Depart ...

for his performance in ''Captain''.

Honours

India * SAFF Championship:

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

; runner-up:

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

South Asian Games The South Asian Games (SAG or SA Games), formerly known as the South Asian Federation Games (SAFG or SAF Games), is a quadrennial multi-sport event held among the athletes from South Asia. The governing body of these games is South Asia Olympic ...

Gold medal:

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

; Silver medal:

References

External links

*
His photo by Telegraph India.com

His photo in Kerala Police's website

Article on Sathyan

Documentary about V. P. Sathyan
on

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sathyan, V. P. 1965 births 2006 deaths Suicides in India Suicides by train Malayali people Sportspeople from Kannur Footballers from Kerala Indian footballers India international footballers Mohun Bagan AC players Footballers at the 1986 Asian Games Association football fullbacks Association football midfielders Asian Games competitors for India South Asian Games medalists in football South Asian Games gold medalists for India South Asian Games silver medalists for India 2006 suicides