Peter Vaz, President of Sporting Clube De Goa lost his battle against Covid-19 on 24th December 2020 in Bengaluru. After a month-long battle with COVID19, Peter’s untimely demise has bought a lot of sadness to his loved ones.
53-year-old Peter Vaz may have lost the battle with COVID19 but had won a lot of hearts in his lifetime. Coming from a very humble background, Vaz was an entrepreneur who with his intelligence and dedication made a name for himself.
Vaz hailed from Caranzalem and did his schooling at the Don Bosco HS in the city. Later he opted for the diploma in engineering at Government Polytechnic, Altinho where he realized his true passion.
During his graduation, Vaz did not make the Polytechnic football team’s starting eleven and felt he just wasn’t ready to accept the rejection.
At the age of 22, Vaz passed out from Government Polytechnic and landed himself a job at the PWD at Vasco as a junior engineer. However, the monotonous life at the Government job did not make him happy and soon Vaz decided to quit the job.
In 1989, Vaz started Models Group with Edgar Afonso. The company has interests in construction, tourism, hospitality, and sports and soon became one of the leading businesses in the city.
Though his business was doing good, Vaz did not forget the love for Football he always had. In 1999, Vaz took over Cidade de Goa’s football and named his club Sporting Clube de Goa, after the famous club with the same name in Portugal.
As reported in the Freepressjournal, Sporting Clube de Goa, fondly called ‘the Oranjes’ by their supporters, won the GFA league in its inception year itself (1999-2000). Following that, they triumphed in the ONGC Super Cup in 2005, whereas reached the final of the Federation Cup thrice (2005, 2006, and 2014). The Oranjes finished as the runners-up of the National Football League in 2004-2005.
Kushal Das, General Secretary, AIFF described Vaz as a very capable football administrator whose passion for football was unparalleled.
In terms of community work, Vaz re-built the Rosary Church at Caranzalem, constructed a full-fledged primary school for Don Bosco, and had a dental college at Colvale in memory of his late father, Diogo.
His sudden demise has left all the people whose lives he touched shocked and sad. All his players from the football club have been calling up his family to pay the condolences and the love just keeps on pouring in. This only shows that Vaz had lived a full life and was loved by one and all.
