Shanmugam Venkatesh Profile

Shanmugam Venkatesh is an Indian Football Player from Bangalore. He has been playing for the Indian National Football team since the year 1997, and is considered to be one of the best Mid Fielders to exist in Indian Football currently.

Early Life & Club Football
He was born on the 23rd of November 1978 at Bangalore, Karnataka. His brother, Dakshina Murthy used to play for the Football team of Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE). In the year 1996, Venkatesh began playing along with his brother at the ADE team, and started learning the ropes from him. He left the ADE team after some time and joined the Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) team where his talent was spotted and nurtured by the seasoned Football Coach Krishnaji Rao. In the year 1997 he moved to Salgaocars Club, Goa, which was a well known Football Club. Venkatesh played at the Club for a span of 3 years, and left it in the year 2000 to join Mahindra United Club, Mumbai. After playing for Mahindra United for 2 years, he switched to Mohun Bagan Athletic Club, Kolkata, and stayed over there for a period of one year. He left Mohun Bagan Athletic Club in the year 2008 and joined Pune FC which he has been a part of till now.

International Football
Shanmugam Venkatesh has been a part of the Indian National Football team since the year 1997 in various age groups, and has represented the team in various International Football tournaments. In the year 1997, he participated in his first international tournament as a part of the National Under-19 team which played at Rajiv Gandhi Gold Cup Tournament. The same year he also played in the Asian Youth Under-19 Championship held at Thailand. Venkatesh was a part of the Indian Football squad that played at the Bangkok Asian Games 1998, and the SAF Cup 1998 held at Goa, where the Indian team was the winner. Further, he played in the Millennium Cup 2000 held at Cochin, Kerala and the World Cup Qualifying Rounds held at Brunei, U.A.E., Yemen and India in the year 2000.

International Tournaments
Veknatesh contributed to the Indian Football team�s victory in the L.G. Cup 2002 held at Vietnam, and also represented the team in the England Tour of 2002. He was a part of the Indian Football team that won a Bronze medal each in the Asian Games 2002 and SAF Games 2003, and a Silver medal at the Afro Asian Games 2003. Shanmugam served as the Captain of the Indian Football team in the World Cup Qualifying match played against Singapore in the year 2004, and Pakistan Friendly Series held in 2005. He led the Indian squad to the Fiji tour 2005, wherein 3 friendly matches were played, and to the Nation�s Cup 2006 held at Vancouver, Canada.

Awards and Recognitions
Shanmugam Venkatesh has been honored with a number of awards throughout his career as a Football player, and these include the Best Player of the National League award in 2001, All India Football Federation (AIFF) National League Award for Best Player in 2003, Mahindra United �Best Midfielder of the Year� award at National Football League in 2003 and 2004, and AIFF �Player of the Year� award in 2004 and 2005.

Apart from them, Venkatesh has been bestowed upon Eklavya Award in the year 2005 by Karnataka State Government, �Player of the Year� award in 2006 by Karnataka Olympic Association and �Player of the Tournament� award at Federation Cup tournament in the year 2006.