Soccerite G.S. Piyatissa passes away

by Upananda Jayasundera

G.S. Piyatissa, a Soccer player and coach passed away in Sweden on 25th May 2015. He was 74 years old.

An old boy of Dharmaraja College, Kandy, Piyatissa has always remembered his old school Dharmaraja and the soccer playing clubs - Mad - Hyama Lanka, Sunrise SC. 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 in Sri Lanka between 1966 to 1970.

He played for Sri Lanka against Burma, Pakistan, Army teams Singapore Services, Red Star from Switzerland and also against a Russian side. He first represented Sri Lanka from 1966 to 1969 after playing and captaining Dharmaraja in 1963. He also represented Kandy district team as inside left represented Sri Lanka as left extreme.

His contemporaries then were - Captain P.D. Sirisena, S.M. Noor, Edward Wickremasuriya, Mahinda Aluwihare and golfkeeper Lionel Peiris, to name a handful of the players.

Before coming into the Sri Lanka team, while at Dharmaraja College his teammates were S.U. Mendis, Daya Jayasundera, Asoka Tennekoon, G.S. Ratnayake, M. Marikkar, L.S.B. Imbuldeniya, Johotlia 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 play for Lidingo FC as a player-cum-coach.