Congratulations Dempo!

I would like to send my personal congratulations to Dempo Sports Clubs - its management, coaching staff, players and its fans!!!

It is another title for the Goans, who have won four of the last six National Football League/I-league titles. An impressive figure in any countries top league around the world.

Dempo's are now also the lone record champions with those four titles ahead of the Kolkata giants East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, who have won three NFL titles each.

This once more shows the role model Dempo's are for other Indian football clubs. And the fortunes are mainly controlled by the clubs coach-cum-secretary Armando Colaco and his team.

Armando has build his team over the years. Many players in the squad have been with Dempo's for years, while every summer Armando makes strategic signings to strengthen the squad further and gives talented youngsters a chance.

And now he has set sights to qualify as the first Indian club for the AFC Champions League next year.

One can only hope Dempo achieves another first...


Close to the end

But exactly a decade ago Dempo's nearly shut down their team after the club finished rock bottom of the 4th National Football League and were relegated.

Armando had to plead with the companies management not to close down the team and he vowed to bring them back to the top of Indian football.

A lot of people would have said, he's just saying it to keep the club alive, but Armando went on to achieve it in the coming years.


2nd Division

The club spend two years in the 2nd Division National Football League. In the first year they missed out on promotion by a point, while in year two they gained promotion by winning the title in style by winning all seven matches, scoring 14 goals and conceding none.

Only in the 2002/03 season the club had made their return to India's top flight, but thereafter there was no looking back as the Dempo Group supported the ambitions of Armando Colaco with the necessary finances. Company chairman Srinivas N. Dempo showed interest in the affairs of his club.


Back to the top

After their return to the NFL the club needed a couple of years, but then they slowly became a threat to the other top clubs as Armando rebuild the team.

And the club won their first NFL title in 2004/05 which they won on the last day of the championship ahead of Sporting Clube de Goa and East Bengal.

The club would go on to win the last NFL title in 2006/07 and then also win the first I-League title the next year on to confirm their status as India's top club.


The Future

The future looks bright for Dempo's.

Armando will surely be looking to strengthen his team in the summer.

But it also shows that hard work and dedication pays off...