Besides training hundreds of boys in multiple classes in a day, he has set up three football clubs of 20 boys each.

In 2009, he launched an exchange program, sending two Kashmiri boys to Brazil to play in professional clubs there for a year there. Four boys also came from Brazil to play with the ISAT clubs in Kashmir.

Musadiq Mehraj, one of the two who spent a year in Brazil, was 14 when he joined the academy. The 2006 world cup inspired him to play football. He was amongst the first few who learnt the trick from Marcos.

“I just used to kick around. I thought I was playing football, but today I feel I was just kicking the ball without knowing the game. It was Troia who taught us the basics,” said Musadiq.

After a year in the Brazil, Musadiq says he has not just got a better hold on the game, but is a changed man now.

“I was so short tempered earlier, but not now,” he said.

For 10 months before their trip, Pedroso taught Musadiq and Abdul Hannan Spanish language and Latin American culture. She also accompanied them to Brazil while her family hosted the boys there.

“Marcos, Priscilla, and the kids, they are like my family,” says Musadiq.

In a place as small as Kashmir, Troia has remained in news, right from the time he arrived. In the first few months after his arrival he was roughed up paramilitary troops in a Srinagar street, taking him for just another Kashmiri man. Two years later New Delhi asked him to leave. It was only after Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah intervened that he was allowed to stay.

Marcos’ exchange program also ran into a major trouble when the boy, first selected for a trip to Spain was declined a passport. Basharat Baba’s father was a former militant or freedom fighter.

The media attention to the issue again led to the intervention of chief minister, who promised to passport for Basharat. Ironically, Basharat had missed the opportunity but got the passport. Troia had to cancel the Spain exchange programme after Madrid declined visa to the Kashmiri boys.

Inspired by the story, Indian filmmaker Ashvin Kumar made a documentary that tells the story of Kashmir through the lives of Troia , Basharat who faced passport troubles, and his father. The documentary, ‘Inshallah football’ faced problems with the Indian censor board, but has been critically acclaimed in screenings abroad.

Troia still wants to arrange a trip for Basharat.

“I am still trying, but now it is kind of a personal issue. He is my best player but he is already 20 now,” explaining that Latin American academies and clubs start taking boys as young as 7.

This year, however, has been the most difficult for Marcos. He almost left, after he found his two dogs dead, and received a threatening phone call.
Police later traced the call to a prank caller. Troia doesn’t like to talk on the episodes now.

“[...] there are people, who feel threatened and insecure by our work here,” Pedroso says, without naming anyone.

She plans to open an institute to teach Latin American languages and culture. And despite difficulties, she wants to stay.

“We can stay as long as we are allowed to, but if you ask me if I want to leave, I would say No.” said Pedroso who has recently joined a local school as a teacher.

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