Naushadh Abdulla, from Th. Kandoodhoo, is a 32-year-old individual who has a deep love for football for as long as he can remember. He began playing football with his friends after seeing football matches being aired on the TV. Naushadh would regularly watch the Champions League as well as the Laliga

He was pleased to tell us that his favorite clubs to keep up with are: Real Madrid, Juventus and Manchester United. He also admires both Christiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi as he considers them one of the best international football players. In terms of the player Naushadh admires most within Maldives, he finds Ali Ashfaq as one the best players.

Naushadh is yet to win achievements in his football career as the team generally gets knocked out in the semi-finals of the atoll level championships. However, during our interview, Naushadh expressed that he is very dedicated to achieve the atoll level championship for Th. Kandoodhoo and his dream is to bring the Thimarafushi MP Cup back to his island.

He also shared that, one of the biggest challenges that he faced up until now was the problems with the pitch in Kandoodhoo. However, Naushadh was happy to mention that Kandoodhoo has a good quality football pitch now.

The difficulty that Naushadh is currently facing is that there aren’t enough tournaments within the atoll. He further elaborated by mentioning there is no FAM tournament either. He believes that as a result of the political challenges within the country, there isn’t enough support for football which is why, there hasn’t been much of an improvement in the field. Moreover, he mentioned that if there was a football league for Maldives, potential players can be created.

Additionally, Naushadh conveyed that, if the teams from atolls can play in the Male’ league, it would lead to an improvement of the standard and quality of football in Maldives. He concluded the interview with an emphasis on, that the authority has to create a good football league in Maldives so that there can be an improvement.