Read for 2 minutes18 Jun 2026 09:36 PM IST
Mario Miranda’s Lutolim in South Goa now has another claim to fame. One of the many characters that Miranda drew in his goofy roles in Salsete might be Reduldo Araujo, with a football at his feet. His grandson, Maximiliano Araujo, became the first Indian-origin player to score in a FIFA World Cup, as he netted for Uruguay in a 1–1 draw against Saudi Arabia.
The Uruguayan team member since 2023 has a remote, distant link to Lautolim but his grandfather traces his roots to the large cultural village 10 km from Goa and Madgaon. Maxi plays for Sporting CP in Portugal and scored his first goal in the 2024 Champions League against Manchester City, a 1–4 loss.
Notably, Loutolim, a colorful cultural center that produced Miranda and his beautiful chaotic drawings and life in Goa and later Bombay, are two places that foreshadow the creation of Maxi’s history.
Lautolim has a brightly colored private museum called The Big Foot, which recreates scenes from rural Goa. According to a piece in the Deccan Chronicle, in a part of Goa called “Ancestral Goa”, the Big Foot, an open-air museum spread over 9 acres by artist Mendra Joselino Araujo Alvares houses clocks, wall hangings, porcelain plates and palanquins.
“The feature of the site is “The Big Foot”, a large human footprint that was found naturally in the rock,” DC The piece says. The museum also demonstrates the process of feni making. Football and Feni are inseparable from Goa and now the land has World Cup talent.
Ironically, Big Foot also houses the Left Handers Museum in a campus designed by Sandeep Vishnoi since 2017, according to TOI. It has bronze busts of famous lefties Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Brian Lara and MC Mary Kom, besides Diego Maradona, sculpted by Sunil Devere of Aurangabad.
Maximiliano Azzurro would be a welcome addition. What position does he play? To the left – to the left, of course.