football

Vijay Barse, whose foundation Slum Soccer has gained global recognition for helping thousands of slum children fight addiction and a dark future with football, narrates how he fought the urban rural divide to change so many lives.

Pankaj Mahajan from Maharashtra was only in Class 4 when he started chewing tobacco and smoking beedi. His future seemed dismal until football rescued him.

Sangeetha Sekar grew up on the streets of Chennai, but worked to become a football player. She has represented India in tournaments held in Russia and Scotland, and talks about her journey thus far.

How Recognize Rise and Empower Association (RREA), a non-profit in Manipur, delivers quality education and is ending clash of the clans through sports. Their Sports for Social Development programme in Kamjong district is significantly improving students' attendance, too.

Sanjay Pathak, a government school teacher from Laxmipur village in Bihar, runs the Rani Laxmibai Sports Academy, where he currently trains around 55 young girls from his village. All free of cost

More than anything else, what many Indian fans remember is the joy he gave them. As Maradona once said, "When you're on the field, life goes away, the problems go away, everything goes away!”

Indian football legend IM Vijayan took to Twitter to pay his tribute to 'Hand of God' Diego Maradona, who has passed away at the age of 60. Watch the video of the iconic moment when the two shared a stage!

Sunil and Ranjan Soren have become the youngest and first players in Odisha to sign a five-year professional contract with Punjab FC. Read the story of how they were discovered

Nicknamed as the ‘Chinese wall’, Gostha Paul was also the first footballer to get a stamp issued by the government. #BirthAnniversary

From the man who swam across oceans of five continents in a year to the first captain of the Indian football team, on #NationalSportsDay, we salute 7 forgotten heroes who overcame major hurdles to bring glory to India.