Genuine Cup: Special Olympics Goa brace for one-of-a-kind global football challenge

Panaji: They’ve been training for more than a year, rubbing shoulders with whoever cares to turn up. Earlier this week, they were up against students from Don Bosco’s department of physical education, and they more than proved themselves with a battle that went down to the wire.

The Special Olympics Goa team – backed by Best of You Sports – are preparing for the Genuine Cup in Houston, and remain confident they can give some of the world’s biggest clubs a run for their reputation in United States.

The Genuine Cup is a one-of-a-kind global tournament that celebrates athletes with intellectual and developmental disabilities. India will have representation for the first time.

“We are aware of the competition but trust me, these guys are as good as anyone else,” said Special Olympics Goa CEO Victor Vaz. “They’ve been training for more than a year. As the tournament gets closer, we will have to increase the (training) load with a residential camp.”

In summer 2026, Houston will become the global capital of inclusive football. Starting July 27, a week after the highly-anticipated 48-team FIFA World Cup ends in North America, over 30 teams from around the world will gather at the Rice University to participate in the Genuine Cup.

Last year’s participants included the who’s who of European football. The big guns like FC Barcelona, Manchester United, Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain were all in attendance, and were joined by other heavyweights SL Benfica, Sporting CP, AS Roma, Inter Milan and Ajax.

National teams of Croatia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Guatemala and Hungary also took part.

Goa were invited through BOY, a Madrid-based player representation agency, for last year’s edition but the team could not obtain their visas on time. Now, they are keeping their fingers crossed.

“As of now, the only hurdle is obtaining visas. Once we have the visas, we are ready to take on the world,” said Vaz, who was previously national sports director of Special Olympics Bharat, and a key figure in developing the programme and spreading it to more than 31 states across the country.

Vaz’s confidence that his team can match the best in business stems from previous performances. Half of the 14 players who have been selected have represented the country at previous editions of the Special Olympics World Games, held in Shanghai and Berlin. In fact, four of the players -- Venson Paes, Joel Rodrigues, Francis Parisapogu, Saish Naik – were part of India’s gold-medal winning football squad in Berlin (2023), with Venson scoring the winner in the final.

Aman Nadaf, Akshay Yadav and Viraj Kumar are the other international players in the team.

“Some of the players have been training on their own at home. They keep posting videos (in the WhatsApp group). They are all excited,” said Special Olympics Goa vice-president Luis Fernandes.

Interestingly, Special Olympics Goa fields a team at the inter-school football tournament organised by Marina High School, Verna. “Here, too, playing against regular players, our boys are very competitive,” said Luis.

When 30-odd players turned up for trials last year, they were put through several drills – German drill, sit ups for a minute, 40m run, bib test, jogging for 30 minutes. Once the better players were handpicked, they were judged with a ball at their feet.

“We plan to hold residential camp in May to get the players in shape, good enough to battle the summer heat” said Vaz. “Our biggest problem is getting the players together. Since many of them are working, we will have to speak to their employers to release them, or provide some relaxations to attend the camp. I am confident we can do well.”