Sivasakthi’s story is one of overcoming heartbreak and setbacks and coming out the other side with stronger self-belief.
It was not too long ago when this footballer from Karaikudi, a small town in Tamil Nadu, kept getting rejected in selection trials across the state. He was denied not because of a lack of abilities but for his slender frame that stood at just 5’4”, a figure not commonly associated with a No. 9 in any team.
“They weren’t looking at my game. Everyone’s reasoning was — ‘No height. No body.’ No one said — ‘It’s not a problem that you don’t have the height; we will give you a chance,’” remembers Sivasakthi.
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Despite scoring multiple times in those trials, he didn’t get a look-in. “I knew that it wasn’t my fault, so why should I feel bad? I moved on to the next one.” He continued doing what he knew well: scoring goals.
And to his surprise, it was Bengaluru FC, one of the country’s premier football clubs, which came calling in 2020. Sivasakthi was then playing for Raman Vijayan Soccer School in the Youth I-League, where his performances against BFC impressed Naushad Moosa, then coach of the Blues’ youth side.
However, his first foray into the Indian Super League (ISL) last year didn’t go according to plan. BFC lost eight of its first 12 matches that season, with Siva warming the bench after the first four games.
But at the start of this year, BFC renewed its playoff hopes with a run of three successive wins, fueled by two goals from Sivasakthi on his return to the starting XI. With the team just three points off a playoff place, his red hot form turned its fortunes around, surprising everyone, including his skipper, Sunil Chhetri.
Sivasakthi Narayanan of Bengaluru FC at his hometown of Kandanur.
“After the win over Jamshedpur, Sunil and I did an interview where I said that we will definitely reach the top four. Sunil responded, ‘He is just over-confident’. But we did end up being in the top four! No one expected us to do that,” recalls Sivasakthi. Remarkably, he scored six times and assisted twice, helping BFC win its last nine league matches to qualify for the playoffs.
It became clear that Bengaluru’s upswing in form since the start of this year coincided with Sivasakthi’s inclusion in the starting XI. He has a wide variety of goals and also possesses the passing technique to create chances for his teammates which make him a complete forward. In his first full season in the top flight, he has scored with either foot, a headed goal, tap-ins, lobbed finishes and by rounding off the ‘keeper. According to BFC coach Simon Grayson, his biggest strength is his decision-making to back his abilities.
Grayson also noted his calmness in front of the goal. “(Many players) fear one-on-one situations, but not him. When in that position, he slots it away like prime Sunil Chhetri. (But) he has a lot to learn and has a long way to go,” said Grayson.
Sivasakthi’s hope of a crowning moment, though, was taken away when a collision in the very first minute of the ISL final left him with a bloodied nose, forcing him to leave on a stretcher. The injury also ruled him out of the India camp and the possibility of a national team debut in March.
While the season ended on a disappointing note with a defeat in the Super Cup final, Sivasakthi finished as the club’s top-scorer with 11 goals, ahead of seasoned campaigners like Chhetri and Krishna.
Sivasakthi, born to CT Natarajan and Muthulakshmi, comes from a modest working-class family. Growing up in Kandanur, in Karaikudi, there were early signs of his goal-scoring ability. Even while playing for fun as a budding teenager, he used to love putting the ball in either net irrespective of the team he was playing for.
His father Natarajan encouraged not only him but also his brother Sivasubramaniam to take up football by taking them to nearby competitions during Diwali. At the end of one of these tournaments, Noble Football Academy, a non-profit academy in Chidambaram, hosted trials for promising footballers in 2014. Both Siva and his brother, a year older, were selected to move to the Academy that was run by former India international Raman Vijayan and his brother, Raman Prakash, who first gave Siva the opportunity to play as a striker.
The then 14-year-old reluctantly left behind his parents to move to Chidambaram. But tragedy struck a year later when his father passed away. That’s when his mother moved to Coimbatore to work as a midday cook at a hostel, leaving her children with their aunt.
“It was very hard,” Muthulakshmi remembers. “The boys were studying in 9th and 10th standard. It was very difficult to even get food to eat. No one from our family helped us, even those who were in good standing. My boys did all the hard work. Seeing their mother go through hard times is what has taken them to where they are.”
Muthulakshmi also turned to Vijayan to provide them with the necessary platform for her children to succeed in life. Vijayan stepped up by paying their school fees and for their meals. But due to a lack of funds at the Academy, Vijayan had to close operations for a year, which meant both Sivasakthi and his brother went back to stay with their aunt in Kandanoor before returning the next year.
“He was a completely different player when he came back, with all the qualities for a complete No. 9. He scored a lot of goals in the age group levels and became a reliable striker,” he says. Post his schooling, Raman brought him to his football school in Chennai, giving him the platform to play in the Youth I-League.
It was in the Academy halls where he grew up watching his hero Chhetri on TV. Sivasakthi remembers how he was overawed and starstruck when he trained with the Bengaluru first team and was sent back down to the B team.
“Then I realised if I had played my game, I would have stayed there. They are always going to be here, and I will make sure I will play with them,” says Sivasakthi.
Sivasakthi was offered generous praise from Chhetri himself who labelled him a ‘superstar’ after his goal in the Durand Cup final against Mumbai City FC. It was with the same ‘height and body’ people rejected him for that Sivaskathi brushed aside Mourtada Fall, a towering defender nearly a foot taller, to open the scoring in that match, which was also his first-ever start for BFC.
After his breakthrough season at the highest level in the country, Sivasakthi is keen to bounce back from the latest setback. The national team camp will be underway as coach Igor Stimac starts preparations for the AFC Asian Cup next January. Stimac has already outlined Sivasakthi as one of his key figures in attack.
“I had to miss national call-ups (across levels) for the third time now. I want to attend this camp and hopefully get the call-up and go on to play the AFC Cup,” says the 21-year-old. Being a ‘Chhetri fan’, nothing would please him more than leading the line alongside his skipper.
It’s fair to say that he won’t be denied; Sivasakthi is inevitable
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