Malayali soccer wonder boy joins Harvard

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Soccer has done wonders to  Vardhin Manoj, 16, the Indian origin Malayali boy settled in San Diego in California, US.  Harvard University has selected him for his soccer skills and he will play for their division one college team. Though he got admission in all the top Ivy League universities like Yale, Stanford, Cornell, Dartmouth,

University of Chicago, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as well as United States Naval Academy and  United States Army War College, he chose Harvard.  He is  also keen to be a part of Kerala Blasters in the Indian Super League. DC had reported about  the strides he was  making in soccer in July 2013.

A forward player,   Vardhin, 5’10,”  is  currently doing his 11th grade in  one of the leading private schools, La Costa Canyon High School in Carlsbad,  California.

He is equally good in his studies and has scored 4.3 Grade Point Average (GPA) which is more than 90 percentage in all subjects.

He  was   selected for Olympic Development Programme and was the top player to represent California State. He was picked to represent the US West Regional team consisting of players from over 14 states.

He has been playing the highest level soccer in the USA with US Soccer Federation Development Academy for the last several years. Ever since ISL was launched in the country, Vardhin has  watched the matches on Youtube amidst his hectic schedule.

“Being a Malayali and a fan of Sachin Tendulkar,  I support the  Kerala Blasters.  I strongly believe that soccer in India will become as popular as Indian Premier League in cricket or the English Premier League.  India has a huge number of soccer fans and as we bring in more quality games to India, the soccer fever will catch up in the coming years,”  said Vardhin, the top goal scorer on the Surf Academy for two years running.

Vardhin’s father Manoj Prasad is the IT vice-president at Thermo Fisher,  and mother Lakshmy Manoj, IT software test manager at Viasat Inc. They  have been supporting him in his tryst with soccer.

In 2014, Vardhin played half  the season with U16 (two year up) and in 2015,  played with U16 team (one year up). His younger brother, Vismay Manoj who is in seventh grade is already playing at the highest level for his age in the US. But he is a bit disappointed that he will miss all Olympic Development Programmes  as they are currently in India for their holidays.

 

 

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