ISL 2018/19: Manjappada boycott, Cyberbullying and more - 5 things Kerala Blasters got wrong this season

#2 CK Vineeth and Cyberbullying – Still a better love story than Twilight

The Prodigal son

If their performances on the pitch were not enough to grab the headlines, the Kerala Blasters were shell-shocked when their leading goal-scorer was in the news for apparently speaking out against the fans.

CK Vineeth, who etched his name into the history books at the club after overtaking Iain Hume as the all-time leading goal-scorer this term, quickly went from hero to villain in what worked out as a dramatic fallout between him and the fans.

The striker has been a victim of cyberbullying in the past and decided to take action against the official fan group after they had alleged him of misconduct with a ball boy in Kochi.

The incident happened after he was loaned out to Chennaiyin FC and returned to the Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium in February during the defending champions’ 3-0 defeat against the Blasters.

Vineeth filed an official complaint against the Manjappada for defaming him with false accusations via social media and the official fan group were forced to write an apology to the player.

However, the incident was not cooked overnight and after his departure to Chennaiyin FC, it had been brewing in the background for a while with all that has been happening at the club.

An esteemed daily had produced an article on how Vineeth had openly suggested he wanted to leave the club due to the unforgiving backlash received from the fans and subsequently the report was taken down and termed as if the events in the same never happened.

We don’t know the exact truth behind all that, but it is hard not to notice what transpired into an embarrassing fallout between arguably one of the biggest stars in the history of the club.