Muzamil Mahmood is the one and the only coach in the Ganderbal district who holds an Asian Football Confederation B license outside Srinagar from Kashmir Province. He’s a professional coach who has been associated with celebrated football clubs and academies all over the country. He had also completed a coaching course from Brazil to add to his CV.
But nothing was easy for this dynamic personality to achieve such accolades as he belongs to a remote village of Gogjigund in Ganderbal district where people although possessed a passion for the game but at the same time lacked a perception in its wide scope.
Muzamil Mahood
It all started from the memorable 1998 World Cup where a 15-year-old year kid, Muzamil fell in love with the game while watching the whole tournament sitting beside his uncle who also shares a passion for the game. Although the little Muzamil possessed a heart replenished with passion for the game but lacked proper guidance from a mentor or coach and he was left all by himself.
Every morning at 5 AM he would train solitary with a ball at his feet in a nearby jungle. The appetite to become a professional player would make him walk miles and travel in heavily packed buses to get to the training ground every day. Most often he reaches home late at night by foot or hitchhiking a ride if he was fortunate enough as there were no buses or sumo service available to his village those days.
During his playing career, he always had the dream of football getting popularised in Ganderbal. As a result, he made a conscious decision to take the obligation of promoting this game in Ganderbal and formed a club of his own where he scouted young prospects from Ganderbal and shapes them into perfect form with the aids spend from his pocket. He would travel on his own to Srinagar to understand how clubs are registered and the teams’ processes. He would take his team to partake in tournaments all over Ganderbal and several other districts. His club also helped to establish a benchmark for other teams in Ganderbal. His club comprised of players from various villages and thus formulated wholesome connections where more than 45 clubs at present are functional. Sir Muzamil became part of history being the workhorse behind the formation of the District Football Association of Ganderbal.
In 2007 Sir Muzamil upgraded his role from being a player to a football promotor and organizer and altogether he also showed interest in Coaching. During this period, Brazilian coach Marcos opened an academy in Ganderbal and made sir Muzamil the head of the Academy. Under the banner of ISAT, he trained more than 100 kids and was an integral part of that setup for around four years. In 2011, he decided to form his Academy alongside a senior team called FC Ganderbal to groom local talent and continued the work of promoting the game to all nooks and corners of Ganderbal.
Finally, after long perseverance, he made his way to Bombay to attend an Introductory coaching course and qualified in it. In the following two years, he qualified as an AFC C license coach and commemorated his complete transition into a professional football coach.
Afterward, he joined the most celebrated club of the state, Real Kashmir FC as an assistant coach under Head Coach David Robertson, an ex-international footballer from Scotland. He spends a lengthy two seasons with the club intensifying his expertise in coaching and simultaneously learning a few tricks from the trade.
He further made inroads into his coaching when he was entrusted as the Head coach for the U15 team of the J&K State Football Academy, where he guided the team on both local and national level tournaments under the mentorship of Mehrajuddin Wadoo and Sajid Yousuf Dar for three years. He also assisted the U18 team and ultimately became the head coach as a reward for spearheading the team in competitions all over the country. He was awarded as the best coach by the J&K state sports council and Jammu and also Kashmir Football Association. He was again conferred in 2007 by JKFA for his service in promoting the game all over the state.
Coach Muzamil at the training ground
Muzamil moved on to create history by being the first coach outside Srinagar district in Kashmir province to qualify for AFC B license; the second-highest level of coaching in Asia. It was after this glorious achievement, he was appointed as the Head Coach For Kohlapur City FC and carried the team to participate in the Indian women’s league in 2019. In addition, he was also was appointed as a scout by Reliance Youth Foundation for the whole of J&K. Since then his graph steeped high, and currently, the enigmatic coach is looking forward to entitling as an AFC A Licence holder soon.
Besides being a Coach, Muzamil by profession is a school teacher with six post graduations and B.E.D in varied subjects. He is a mentor, role model, and an inspiration for many as he nurtures people and promotes valuable traits in the young generation by the medium of football. At present, he continues to work for the advancement of football selflessly and if you ever visit Ganderbal you’ll come around the most popular guy kicking around having a ball at his feet while coaching players outright.
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