Fredy Mascarenhas

Fredy Mascarenhas (born 11 April 1981 in Cuncolim, Goa) is an Indian footballer who plays as a striker for Robin Hood FC in the Bermudian Premier Division.

Youth and early career

Fredy Mascarenhas was born on 11 April 1981 in Cuncolim, Goa, India. He started his liking of the game football at a young age after seeing his neighbour and good friend Siano Fernandes who played for Dempo.^[1] At the age of 13 he joined his local school football team at Our Lady of Health High School in which he also played in the Subroto Mukerjee Cup.^[1] At the same time, Mascarenhas played for his village team in the Goan inter-village tournaments at the under-14 and u-16 levels. Seeing his attitude and skill, his coach, Levino Dias, urged him to give football a serious thought as a career.^[1] He then signed up to join the Salgaocar S.C. under-19 side and at the same time played for lower division Goan clubs like Cuncolim Union and Raitura SC.^[1] While at Salgaocar, he was trained under former u-19 coach Derrick Pereira, who is currently the head coach of Pune FC. After two seasons, Fredy joined first division Goan club Colva Sports Club, helping them get promoted to the professional league. While at Salgaocar, Mascarenhas suffered an accident which kept him out of football for a year.^[1] He made a comeback the following season and scored in the first match with the first touch against Churchill brothers. He represented Goa for the Santosh trophy where he was the highest scorer and also became the first player from Goa to score a double hat-trick in a single match against Tripura. He retired from football in July 2009 after winning the Santosh trophy with Goa for the second time, thus leaving Indian football on a high note. He had missed some opportunities to represent Goa in junior age-level tournaments due to personal reasons.

Career

Salgaocar

After falling to injury while at Colva, Fredy made his return to football by signing for National Football League side Salgaocar where he played for 3 years, after representing their under-19 for 2 years.

Churchill Brothers

Fredy then joined Churchill Brothers S.C. of the National Football League.^[1] While with Churchill Fredy scored many goals and even won the Santosh Trophy while with Churchill.

East Bengal

Fredy then left Goa to play in Kolkata with East Bengal FC. His time there was short but while at Bengal he won the Indian Super Cup and Federation Cup.

Sporting Goa

Fredy then made his return to Goa in 2007 by signing for Sporting Clube de Goa. While at Sporting he played in the I-League with the most notable game coming against his former club, Churchill Brothers, on 18 February 2008 with an 80th minute goal at the Fatorda Stadium ending the game at 1–1 and denying Churchill of the I-League championship for the time being.^[2] Fredy retired from football on July 2009 at the age of 28 and moved to Bermuda to take a non-footballing job.^[3]

Robin Hood

Three years after retiring from football, Fredy made his return by signing for Robin Hood FC of the Bermudian Premier Division.^[4] Fredy then made his debut for Robin Hood two days later on 19 March 2012 against PHC Zebras in which he earned huge praise.^[4][5]

International

Fredy was part of the Indian national football team during their tour to Canada under coach Bob Houghton and was donning Jersey no. 18. He was also part of the Indian team for their World cup 2010 qualifying matches against Saudi Arabia(home and away). He have even attended National camp under Ex-Indian national team coach Stephen Constantine.^[6]

References