At the organisers Goan Sports Association’s ground on Saturday evening, Alukkal moved up and down the field showing a good ball control. He not only set up a couple of scoring opportunities for his side MMK, but also figured once among the scorers in a 4-2 win.

“He is simply superb in the mid-field and is a fantastic schemer too,” said MMK skipper Merwyn Fernandes.

Alukkal, on the other hand was very modest. “For most part of the game, Jai Hind players appeared clueless, which made my job easy,” pointed out the FYBCom student.

A hard-core fan of Arsenal mid-fielder Cesc Fabregas, Alukkal was instrumental in his school St. Annes’ best third place finish in the Mumbai School Sports Association’s under-16 boys’ event three years ago. The Orlem resident was then the skipper of his school team.

But despite that effort, Alukkal failed to find a place in the Maharashtra side when the trials were held at Nanded, three-years-ago. “I was not able to get a berth owing to my small height. During trials, I was pushed around badly by much stronger boys,” recalled Alukkal.

The 5’ 2” Alukkal, however, later found a better team to represent when he was picked by the Kenkre Academy. “I have playing for Kenkre’s u-19 team since my first year junior college,” informed Alukkal.

Talking about his current college team. Alukkal says about eight players who used to play alongside him for his school teams, are now part of his college team. “That way, since we know each other for long, it makes our on-field understanding a bit simple,”says Alukkal, who was initiated into the sport by his father. “He used to take me along whenever he would go to watch a match and that’s how I developed a liking for the game,”says Alukkal.

A worshipper of Cesc Fabregas, Alukkal says Fabregas is even better than former French great Zinedine Zidane. “Zidane is all dribbling and artistic movements but I think Fabregas is much better since his passes are mostly spot-on,”says the 18-year-old.

Results: KC College 4 (Noah Cornel 2, Deepak Singh 1, John Jose) bt Kamala Mehta College 2 (Tyson Gonsalves 1, Kevin Rodriques 1).