I. M. Vijayan

Vijayan was born into a Malayali family on 25 April 1969 in Thrissur City, Kerala. He began his life in a gravely poor environment and had to sell soda bottles in the Thrissur Municipal Corporation Stadium to help his family. He started out as a soda seller in the Thrissur Municipal Corporation Stadium, Kerala, earning 10 paise (0.02 cents) per bottle. He studied at Church Mission Society High School, Thrissur (CMSHSS, Thrissur). Vijayan had passion for the game of football, and somehow caught the eye of the then DGP of Kerala, M.K. Joseph who got him selected for the Kerala Police football club at 17 years of age. Vijayan delivered brilliant performances for Kerala Police at Quilon Nationals 1987, and was able to impress the national football fraternity very soon with his impeccable skills and highly aggressive style of playing. He continued to play for Kerala Police until 1991. He then joined Mohun Bagan, before coming back to Kerala Police in 1992 and then switching back to Mohun Bagan the very next year for a second spell at the club. In 1994, he joined JCT Mills Phagwara and stayed with them for 3 more years until 1997, when he left JCT to join FC Kochin. After spending a one year tenure with the club, he moved once more to Mohun Bagan in 1998, his third spell with the club, and then returned to FC Kochin in 1999. In August 2000, during the off-season, Vijayan joined the Bangladeshi Dhaka Premier Division League club Muktijoddha Sangsad and appeared in five league…

I.M. Vijayan made his debut in international football in the year 1992 and played in a number of tournaments such as Nehru Cup, Pre-Olympics, FIFA World Qualifiers, SAFF Championship and SAF Games. Vijayan was part of the victorious Indian team in the 1999 South Asian Football Federation Cup and scored one of the fastest international goals in history of sport during the tournament, hitting the net against Bhutan after only 12 seconds. He also finished top scorer in the Afro-Asian Games event held in India in 2003 with four goals. Vijayan formally retired from international football after the Afro-Asian Games of 2003.

International

India

SAFF Championship: 1993, 1997, 1999; third place: 2003 South Asian Games Gold medal: 1995; Silver medal: 1993; Bronze medal: 1999 Afro-Asian Games Silver Medal: 2003 Kerala

Santosh Trophy: Winners:1992–93 Runners-up: 1987–88, 1988–89, 1989–90, 1990–91, 1999–2000 Bengal

Santosh Trophy: 1993–94 Kerala Police

Federation Cup: 1990, 1991 Mohun Bagan

Federation Cup: 1992, 1993, 1994 JCT Mills

Federation Cup: 1995, 1995-96 Individual

Padma Shri: 2025 Arjuna Award: 2003 AIFF Player of the Year: 1992, 1997, 2000 Nehru Cup Best Player: 1993 SAARC Gold Cup top scorer: 1993 Afro-Asian Games top scorer: 1993 Nominated for Padma Shri: 2020 Doctorate from Northern State Medical University, Arkhangelsk, Russia.