For the Hawari family, football has never just been a sport. It has been about sacrifice, belief, and chasing a dream against the odds. That dream has now taken a historic turn with 16-year-old Ishaan Hawari becoming the first Indian to join the Everton Football College programme, a youth pathway linked with Premier League club Everton.
Sitting in Manchester, his father Abdul Latheef remembers how it all began back in Malappuram.
“One day I saw Ishaan playing on a neighbour’s ground. He had never trained, but the way he passed, dribbled, and struck the ball, it was all natural. I realised he needed proper coaching,” he said.
A teacher by profession and an athlete himself, Latheef first trained his son individually before admitting him to a local club. Opportunities soon followed. A video of Ishaan scoring multiple goals caught the eye of Minerva Punjab scouts when he was just seven. After a year at Minerva, he spent three seasons with RoundGlass Punjab FC before joining the Reliance Foundation Young Champs (RFYC) in 2022.
Latheef pauses when talking about RFYC. “We want to thank all the coaches and academies who guided him. RFYC especially gave him five-star facilities, international-level grounds, and constant support. That exposure shaped him,” he said.
But Ishaan was restless. “Every day he told me, ‘Papa, take me to Europe. I want better facilities and training,’” Latheef recalled. To back him, he even earned an AIFF D-License and a postgraduate diploma in sports management.
In 2023, the family finally moved to Oldham, near Manchester. The early months were difficult. “I was doing part-time jobs, his mother worked full-time, and without a car, we sometimes spent six hours by bus just to reach the club,” Latheef said. Things slowly eased when he managed to buy a car, and Ishaan started getting trial invites. Emails arrived from Manchester City, Sheffield United, Burnley. But when Everton called, the family knew where they wanted him to be. “Because of the legacy, we chose Everton. The sessions are excellent, and the coaches’ knowledge is very good,” said Latheef.
Today, Ishaan is enrolled at Everton Football College, combining his A-Levels with competitive football under the guidance of former Everton midfielder Joe Parkinson. A scholarship covers his tuition, lightening the financial strain. His path has already seen important stops, European tours with RFYC, training at Halifax Town’s academy, grassroots football with Uppermill FC and Heyside FC, and a friendly appearance for the Everton Academy earlier this year.
Cristiano Ronaldo is his idol, but Ishaan’s dreams go beyond fandom. “My ambition is to see him play for India one day,” says Latheef. Ishaan himself wants to test himself in the Premier League against the world’s best.
From Malappuram’s dusty pitches to Everton’s training grounds, the Hawari family’s journey is not a fairytale, it is a story of persistence, small steps, and hard choices. The next chapter will unfold in England, but for a family that has built everything around a ball at their son’s feet, the dream is still the same: to see him walk out one day in India colours.