Piyatissa back on holiday to coach Kandy soccer teams

by Upananda JAYASUNDERA - Kandy Sports Special Corr.

FOOTBALL: A devoted former soccer player from Kandy G.S. Piyatissa has made it a point to make his customary visit to Kandy. He has come to Kandy on holiday for six months from Sweden where he played for a club - Lidingo Football Club as a player and coach.

An old boy of Dharmaraja College, Kandy, Piyatissa, has always remembered his old school - Dharmaraja and the soccer playing club - Madhyama Lanka, Sunrise teams. He has produced national soccer players Diamond Seneviratne and Rasa from Kandy. At 5 ft 3 inches in height, he may be the shortest player to win a national 'cap' during his career here in Sri Lanka between 1966 to 1970. He played for Sri Lanka against Burma, Pakistan Army team, Singapore Services, Red Star team from Switzerland and also against a Russian side.

He first represented Sri Lanka from 1966 to 1969 after playing and captaining Dharmaraja team in 1963. He also represented Kandy District team as inside left and represented Sri Lanka as left extreme. His contemporaries then were - captain P.D. Sirisena, S.M. Noor, Edward Wickremasuriya, Mahinda Aluwihare and goal-keeper Lionel Peiris, to name a handful of the players.

Before coming onto the Sri Lanka team, Piyatissa played soccer for Dharmaraja College and his teammates - S.U. Mendis, Daya Jayasundera, Asoka Tennekoon, G.S. Ratnayake, M. Marikkar, V.S.B. Imbuldeniya, Johotha Silva, Justin Kurukulasuriya, Ranjith Ginige, Daya Weerasinghe and Newton Weerasinghe.

In 1970, he was in Germany and followed a six-month coaching course where national players from around 30 countries followed the coaching course. From Germany he went to Sweden in 1973 to paly for Lidingo FC as a player-cum-coach.