GardenCity Soccer Stars

Hello and a hearty welcome to the GardenCity Soccer Stars blog!

This blog will only have news related to the footballing activities in the garden city of India - Bangalore.

IT capital of India is no stranger to football. Olympians Raman, Kannaiah, Shanmugham, and J Anthony were part of the 1948 and 1952 Olympics football contingent. Arumainayagam, who dominated the national scene in the sixties and Ulganathan in the seventies all belonged to this city. Not to forget Shanmuham Venkatesh, Carlton Chapman, Noel Wilson, R C Prakash - the list is endless.

The city used to host a top national-level tourney, Stafford Cup and the rivalry between the top teams Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) would bring in many frenzied fans to the stadium. Alas, Stafford Cup is stopped for many years and ITI has closed their football team. No team from the city is competing in the 1st division I-League as HAL got relegated couple for years ago. Situation is more compounded when the public sector enterprises like NGEF, BEL, BHEL, BEML, ADA, ADE, HMT, and MEG have stopped recruitment in the sports quota.

It's amazing to see how these cantonment areas in India has emerged to a melting pot of sports, especially in football. In Bangalore, you will always find a group of kids playing football in areas like Austin Town and Ulsoor. Austin Town is considered to be the nursery of Bangalore football. Right from the era of playing the game in bare feet to modern day, this place has always produced quality players who have made our country proud.

Thru GardenCity Soccer Stars, we will keep you posted about the news, upcoming events, exclusives, and tete-a-tete with the football greats who had made this city and country proud.