Cristiano Junior: The death of a dream on Kanteerava pitch

A person is always at the mercy of certain tragedies in life; they are the flotsam and jetsam of the journey, it is often said.

But not always.

The journalists seated in the upper tier of the Kanteerava Stadium in Bangalore on December 5, 2004, were busy jotting down on their notepads when it actually happened.

It can never be forgotten.

It was exactly 20 years ago. The weather in Bangalore was cool and dry. Goa’s Dempo Sports Club were playing Mohun Bagan Athletic Club in the well-attended Federation Cup final.

Dempo nearly sealed the deal in their favour when their Brazilian goal machine, Cristiano Sebastiao de Lima Junior, left an advanced Mohun Bagan defence chasing him in vain and eluded a threateningly onrushing goalkeeper, Subrata Pal, to strike for the second time in the match and put the Goa side 2-0 ahead. Since no television replay was available in the makeshift press box, it was difficult to understand whether Pal’s outstretched hands hit the face of the Dempo striker.

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It was in the 78th minute, perhaps the darkest moment in Indian football history. As this correspondent noted down the goal and raised his head, all he could see was that Junior, who lost his balance and fell inside the Mohun Bagan box after scoring the goal, was still lying prostrate.

Then the commotion began. The referee, M. Balu, had already run towards the centre circle to signal the goal and start the match. But it couldn’t be, as Junior had not risen to his feet. Who knew he would never be?

The first to reach Junior was his Nigerian teammate Ranty Martins, followed by RC Prakash. Ranty bowed down to look at the Brazilian and immediately started waving his hands frantically towards his bench, calling for help. Balu was already there. He asked for the ambulance to move in. It took a few minutes before Junior could be lifted and put in the ambulance that roared past the startled onlookers for the HOSMAT Hospital.

The match restarted but the way Ranty Martins could be spotted kneeling beside Junior and looking heavenwards with folded hands left a lingering feeling of insecurity in everyone’s mind.

Later it was found that the Doordarshan camera positioned behind the Mohun Bagan goal captured close-ups of Junior’s last few seconds in life. They showed how the unfortunate footballer’s eyeballs rolled up in sheer pain as he hit the ground before the eyelids covered them forever.

Ironically, the rest of the match was played and even the prize distributions were held with nobody having any clue of what the latest news was from the HOSMAT Hospital.

Hell broke loose very soon.

While entering the media room, this correspondent received a call from the then All India Football Federation General Secretary, Alberto Colaco. “You better come to the hospital. He is no more,” said Mr. Colaco without actually naming the Brazilian.

The scene at the HOSMAT Hospital was heart-wrenching. The body of Junior, the youngster who took Indian football by storm with his goal-scoring ability, was lying motionless in the emergency ward. Ranty Martins was beating the chest of the dead body and wailing loudly. Other Dempo players present in the room were either weeping or sitting absolutely bewildered.

Dempo coach Armando Colaco was trying to organise things, though there was nothing left to organise really. The tragedy had struck like lightning and Armando’s frustrations clearly turned to anger. He looked angry with everyone around, especially with Mohun Bagan goalkeeper Pal, who, Armando felt, hit Junior when he collapsed on the pitch.

The blame game began

Junior’s body was sent to the mortuary for an autopsy to be conducted the next day. Then his body was taken to Goa, where his tearful wife, Juliana, was waiting. Finally, the entire Dempo football family and thousands of football fans gathered to bid him farewell as Juliana accompanied the casket to Brazil for Junior’s mourning mother to see him for the last time.

In the meantime, what happened in Indian football for the next two months was unprecedented. Everyone blamed everyone for the tragedy; the hunt for a scapegoat was launched in earnest. A few skeletons tumbled out of the Indian football’s cupboard.

Subrata Pal became an easy target.

Armando Colaco filed a police complaint alleging a deliberate foul by the Mohun Bagan goalkeeper was the cause of death. “I also want to lodge my complaint against Mohun Bagan Athletic Club, because they were all out to harm my player,” he said.

Pal was summoned to the Disciplinary Committee of the AIFF headed by Mr. Hardev Jadeja with NA Khan, LR Natarajan and Mohan Raj as other members. He was suspended for two months. The decision was revoked by the Appeal Committee, headed by advocate Vijay Panjwani since there was no concrete evidence that Pal had hit Junior when the latter scored the second goal.

The roles of the FIFA referee, M Balu and the match commissioner, MG Suvarna were also under scanner. It was said that they failed to gauge the seriousness of the situation and delayed calling for the ambulance. This, too, didn’t hold much water and Balu’s international postings couldn’t be stopped after a couple of months.

Alberto Colaco, now leading a peaceful life in Goa, said: “As usual, the AIFF was blamed the most. The autopsy confirmed Junior died of heart failure. A repeat autopsy in Brazil said the same.”

The Victoria Hospital in Bangalore conducted a postmortem. Professor of Forensic Medicine CH Manjunath said the cause of death was “usual cardiac arrest”. The report was handed over to the Sampangi Ramnagar Police Station by the hospital.

It was found that, contrary to the AIFF rules, the two teams in the final didn’t have a doctor on their respective benches. What they had were physiotherapists. Even the Bangalore District Football Association had only asked for physiotherapists and an ambulance, HOSMAT Hospital’s Director and Chief of Orthopaedics, Dr. Thomas A. Chandy, confirmed the same, claimed a local newspaper later. No action was taken against the clubs and the organisers, whose faults proved fatal.

Death of a dream

Junior was one of the innumerable journeymen from the stable of highly talented Brazilian footballers, who came to India in search of livelihood. He arrived in India in the 2003-04 season to play for East Bengal and soon became the darling of the crowd. With Bhaichung Bhutia as the other forward, he scored 21 goals in 24 matches. East Bengal won the National Football League (now I-League) and Junior bagged the Golden Boot award. He was lured away by Dempo the next season on a reported salary of Rs. 22 lakhs per year. Junior hunted goals like a cheetah, Bhutia once said.

The 25-year-old devout Christian wanted to make his widowed mother happy when God called him away. Many of those with him on the pitch on that fateful evening have grown in life. Pal went on to be nicknamed the “Spiderman” on the Asian stage for his exceptional skills; Sunil Chhetri grew to be a walking legend.

Cristiano Junior is the only one who saw his dream shattered on the Kanteerava Stadium pitch.