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 lea ...

who played the

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

position. He was the captain of the

India national football team The India national football team represents India in men's international Association football, football and is governed by the All India Football Federation, the governing body for Football in India, football in India. It is a member of FIFA, ...

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 States and union territories of India, 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 ...

in the

Santosh Trophy The National Football Championship for Santosh Trophy, or simply Santosh Trophy, is an inter-state national football competition contested by the state associations and government institutions under the All India Football Federation (AIFF), th ...

National Championship. He attended the South Zone camp for Indian probables under

Amar Bahadur Amar may refer to: People Given name * Amar (British singer) (born 1982), British Indian singer born Amar Dhanjal * Amar (Lebanese-Egyptian singer & actress) (born 1986), born Amar Mahmoud Al Tahech * Amar Bose (1929–2013), Founder of Bose Co ...

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 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 2006. After ...

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the Capital city, capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the ...

and in the

Seoul Asian Games The 1986 Asian Games (), officially known as the 10th Asian Games and the X Asiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1986 (), were held from 20 September to 5 October 1986, in Seoul, South Korea. The venues and facilities of the 10th Asiad were the sa ...

. 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, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

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

Mohun Bagan Mohun Bagan Super Giant, commonly referred to as Mohun Bagan, is an Indian professional football club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. Founded in 1889, it is one of the oldest football clubs in Asia. The club competes in the Indian Super League, ...

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 40,002 employees, 5,901 branches with 5,268 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

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

and

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

. He led the Indian team to a gold medal in the 1995 SAF Games in Madras (Present Chennai). He also led Kerala to the

title in 1992. Sathyan was the

AIFF AIFF may refer to: * Audio Interchange File Format * All India Football Federation, the national governing body of Association football in India Film festivals * Addis International Film Festival, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia * Alexandria Internation ...

player of the year in 1992. As a coach, he was an assistant to

Stephen Constantine Stephen Constantine (born 16 October 1962) is an English professional football coach and former player who is the manager of the Pakistan national football team. Early and personal life Constantine was born on 16 October 1962 in London. He is ...

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 marketplace for the farmer communities in the surrounding regions. Panoor is one of the main suburbs of the city of Thalassery. Panoor was gra ...

Kannur district Kannur () is one of the 14 Districts of Kerala, districts along the west coast in the state of Kerala, India. The city of Kannur is the district headquarters and gives the district its name. The old name, Cannanore, is the anglicized form of th ...

, 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. Sathyan took his own life by jumping in front of an oncoming train in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

on 18 July 2006 because he was suffering from depression due to the lack of recognition/credits/awards he received, and the loss of income after retirement from his football career.

In popular culture

The 2018 Indian biographical film ''

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

'' is based on Sathyan's life.

Jayasurya Jayasurya (born 31 August 1978) is an Indian actor, film producer, playback singer, and impressionist who works in Malayalam films. He has appeared in more than 100 films and has won several awards, including a National Film Awards, National Fi ...

portrayed Sathyan in the film, while

Anu Sithara Anu Sithara is an Indian actress who appears predominantly in Malayalam films. She has also appeared in some Tamil films. She made her debut in 2013 as a child artist '' Pottas Bomb'' in 2013. Anu is also a trained Bharatanatyam dancer and wel ...

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 award, begun in 1969, presented annually at the Kerala State Film Awards of India to an actor for best performance in a Malayalam cinema, Malayalam film. Until 1997, the awards were managed direct ...

for his performance in ''Captain''.

Honours

India *

SAFF Championship The SAFF Championship (erstwhile SAARC Gold Cup and SAFF Gold Cup), is the primary association football competition contested by the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the South Asian Football Fede ...

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

; runner-up:

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

South Asian Games The South Asian Games is a quadrennial multi-sport event held among athletes from South Asia. The South Asia Olympic Council, which was formed in 1983, governs it. The Games consist of seven countries, namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, N ...

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 n ...

; Silver medal:

Individual * AIFF Indian Player of the Year: 1995

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

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sathyan, V. P. 1965 births 2006 deaths 2006 suicides Suicides in India Suicides by train Malayali people Sportspeople from Kannur Footballers from Kerala Indian men's footballers India men's international footballers Mohun Bagan Super Giant players Men's association football fullbacks Men's association football midfielders Asian Games footballers for India Footballers at the 1986 Asian Games South Asian Games gold medalists for India South Asian Games silver medalists for India South Asian Games medalists in football Medalists at the 1993 South Asian Games Medalists at the 1995 South Asian Games