The 2019/20 season saw the club make an enormous progress both on & off the field. It was also perhaps the longest season in the club’s history lasting exactly twelve months, April 2019 – March 2020. During the first quarter of the season, we acquired a provisional membership from the Kerala Football Association (KFA), organized an extensive summer training program exclusively tailored for Malappuram district, appointed Mr. Waivaw Srivastav, Sports Management Professional and Agent as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and successfully activated our Grassroots’ Training Program (Luca Calcio) in five coveted locations. It was in this period when our board decided to incorporate our club as a Private Limited Company.
The transition did not stop there as more progresses were made in the second quarter of the season when Mr. Musthafa Kamal, Owner of the renowned Youtube Channel, ProMK was inducted in the board as one of the Directors. The club’s residential academy started their campaign in VHMHSS Morayur School under our coaches, Sadik and Lazim. In order to smoothen the administrative ranks, two managers, Ashik and Nishad were hired. We hosted our flagship youth football tournament, Luca Soccer Cup in our academy premises in the U15 category. Unlike the previous season, this time the tournament received corporate and media backing. I-League participants, Gokulam Kerala FC emerged winners beating LIFFA Trivandrum on penalties. Another feather in the cap was added when our senior management under the vision of our Founder, Mr. Navas KV decided to incorporate the club’s first ever senior team.
With the senior team in the loop, the club decided to initiate a new weekend-basis open-age training program, Luca Soccer Schools for the players who were not able to devote time on weekdays. Similar to our Grassroots program, Luca Calcio, Luca Soccer Schools also featured predominantly in Malappuram. We received the biggest boost in our campaign when Kerala Football Association (KFA) invited us to feature in their premier competitions, Kerala Academy League and Kerala Premier League. Our U18 side was directly enrolled into the KAL, while our senior team was scheduled to play a qualifier game against FC Kannur to qualify for the KPL. After being given the opportunity to participate in KFA’s tournaments we decided to rename our club from Luca Soccer Academy (initial name) to Luca Soccer Club. Our club then fully transitioned from an academy to a professional football club.
Despite going down in the qualifiers (0-1), we were inducted in the KPL 2019/20, a new journey began. We were beaten in the opening away encounter of the KPL by the champions-to-be Kerala Blasters’ Reserve Team 5-3, but we managed to beat the reigning champions Gokulam FC 1-0 in our home game thereafter registering a 4-match unbeaten streak. We finished our KPL season on 10 points from eight games, narrowly missing the semi-final berth by a point after picking a point against Kovalam FC in a must-win game. Our U18 Team was third on the KAL table after the tournament halted midway due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. The biggest feat from our KPL and KAL campaigns were our all-Keralite squads comprising players mostly from the Malappuram district. Due to the pandemic, we decided to pull the curtain on an eventful season on March 12, 2020 keeping the health advisories in mind.
It was a great season. Thanks all the people who support us in the journey.