ISL - The New Dream

On last Sunday I became part of the history. I was part of the huge cheering crowd In Salt Lake stadium and observed ISL taking small steps which can turn into huge leap for Indian Football. I was there when artists from the eight cities including Anandan Shivamani played their various form of drums in a glamorous opening ceremony, I was there when (sadly) Priyanka Chopra spent more time talking about the owners (some of them her colleagues) than the football icons beside them, I was there when Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar sat side by side to watch a football match, the first match of the ISL, Indian Super League, between Atletico De Kolkata and Mumbai City FC.

I am not going into minor details like Kolkata won the match by a 3-0 scoreline or Fikru Teferra, Kolkata’s Ethiopian striker, became the first scorer in the history of ISL. But let’s look into the bigger picture.

India has a long history in football. Like many British colonies, in India also the football were started by the English people but Indians quickly caught on the game especially after Mohun Bagan’s victory in the 1911 IFA Shield final. Indian national team started their journey post independence and in first 15 years of independent India were quite a force in the Asian level. They won the gold in Aisan games of 1951 and 1962 and were fourth in 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.

But post that period the performance started to drop, the other Asian teams through their hard work and more focused scientific approach leaped across when India fall behind and now with their FIFA ranking hovering around 150-160 India can only be called a ‘sleeping giant’ as referred by Sepp Blatter.

So what can ISL bring to this cricket crazy nation? The answer could be many folds. Obviously with proper publicity and marketing this can become hugely popular, creates new fan bases, spread the game to the remote parts of the country (like happened in cricket) and inspire a new generation to take up this game more seriously. But along with that this should also be hugely beneficial for the players.

Firstly it will give them a great chance to follow some of the most modern techniques and skills thanks the coaches coming from some of the mainstream footballing countries with vast experience. Playing with good foreign players and icon players, some of the biggest stars in world football in their own right, will not only inspire the Indian youngsters but will also provide the key insights about the game in general. The important factor would be the exposure which the Indian football will get through ISL. Some of the biggest corporate are part of this venture and with their business policy they will ensure that this tournament is well known and news about this is well spread out. Already foreign media from the countries like UK and Spain has shown significant interest in ISL. Team Kolkata’s partnership with Athletico Madrid is a great boon for the team as well as the league. Someone like Arsene Wenger is speaking about ISL in his press conference and hopes that this can bring new dawn for Indian football, this is wonderful.

The quality of football in ISL is definitely much better than the domestic I-league or the state level leagues. The teams are playing much fast paced and technically better football. And it looks great when the Indian players also doing pretty well with respect to speed and skill like their foreign team mates. Folkes like Arnab Mandal, Subhasish Roy Choudhury, Subhash Singh has already in focus with their performances. If they can utilize their learning from ISL in the international matches that will be hugely beneficial for the national team.

ISL also brought a more professional approach in the overall game. Hope some of these will be replicated in I-league too, like the foreign player selection for Indian clubs. ISL is clearly showing that the current group of foreign players like Dudu and Ranti are no match with the foreigners playing in ISL despite having a higher price tag on them and that raises the question about the player recruitment process of clubs like Mohun Bagan and East Bengal and proves that the rumour about club officials hiring players based on the commission they are getting than the player’s skill may have some truth behind them.

But with all these great aspect are ISL perfect? If now then how could we improve ISL more and make it more meaningful for the world football scenario. May be I can share couple of ideas.

 ISL clubs should get under FIFA registration and somehow get eligible to utilize the summer transfer window. If ISL continues to take place in September to December then these clubs can easily sign a few good quality young as well as aged players in half a season loans. Let them play for the clubs till December and then go back to their parent club in January. Obviously even the younger players are involved in reserve squad leagues and under-21 leagues but still we see many Premier league clubs loan out their players for the clubs in championship teams. Hoep ISL can also get involved there.

I absolutely love the way Kolkata franchise get in collaboration with Atletico Madrid. Delhi and Pune have also follow suit with their association with Feyenoord and Fiorentina. It is a win-win scenario for both the parties and I think all the remaining teams also should look to get in a relationship with any club from one of top football nations. Let me explain why I think it will be beneficial for the ISL clubs. If the ISL clubs have a partnership with one of those big clubs they can easily go and use their training facilities which are currently much better than what you get anywhere in India. They can also play practice matches with their players from their academy or reserve teams, get tips from coaching and physical training staffs and even learn from some of their first squad players.

Not only that, those clubs would definitely have a look into the performance of their ISL Counterparts (Atletico Madrid is already doing it) and if some young Indian player can attract them with his performance and technical skill they can be easily selected to be part of those clubs setup through reserve teams.

I also think at some point AIFF needs to find a way to combine I-league and ISL. Otherwise after this high quality football in ISL if we again go back to our slow, meaningless long ball based football in I-league that will not make any sense. Already I-league does not generate enough interest and now with the Indian fans watching top quality football in their own city may become more disinterested about I-league if the quality does not include. So somehow I think it is very important that there is a way we combine the traditional big clubs like Mohun Bagan, East Bengal, Dempo and others get in some kind of partnership with the ISL clubs and embrace their professional approach.

I am very hopeful about ISL’s success and if I go by the quality of football and the support it got from the fans in the very first week of the league, this year’s ISL is already a success. Now if this can sustain for years to come and also bring the Indian football to significant spot in world football that needs to be seen. And with all the heroics from Virat Kohli, Saina Nehwal and Sushil Kumar I will also dream of a day when we can also cheer for someone like Subrata Pal saving a powerful long range drive from Sunil Chhetri in the final minutes of the El Clasico or Manchester Darby.

খেলার গল্প কিম্বা জীবনের...

ফুটবলের বাজারে সত্যি কথাটা প্রথমেই স্বীকার করে নি। এখনও ফুটবলের চেয়ে ক্রিকেটটাই আমি বেশী পছন্দ করি। তা, ক্রিকেটে যে দেশটাকে আমি সমর্থন করি সেটা খুব মজার দল। হ্যাঁ যদিও পৃথিবীর সবচেয়ে মজার দল এটা নয়। সেই জায়গাটা আমাদের প্রতিবেশী দেশটি নিয়ে বসে আছে। বছরে দুবার করে অধিনায়ক পরিবর্তন, খেলোয়াড়দের মধ্যে মারপিট, ফিক্সিং নিয়ে দোষারোপ কোন কিছুই সেখানে বাদ যায় না। আজকাল বাংলাদেশও মাঝে মধ্যেই বেশ ভালো খোরাক যোগায়। গত সপ্তাহের শাকিবের সাস্পেন্সানটা যেমন একটা।

কিন্তু তাই বলে ভারতকে গত ২৫ বছর ধরে সমর্থন করা মোটেই সহজ কাজ ছিল না। আমার জেতা ম্যাচ হেরেছি, কত ম্যাচে যে আমাদের বোলাররা প্রথমে দারুণ বল করেও শেষ দুটো বা তিনটে উইকেট ফেলতে গিয়ে হিমশিম খেয়েছে তার লেখাজোখা নেই। কালকেই তো চূড়ান্ত অসম্মানটা হয়েছে যখন জো রুট আর জিমি অ্যান্ডারসন মিলে টেস্ট ক্রিকেটের ১৩৭ বছরের ইতিহাসে দশম উইকেটের সর্বোচ্চ রানের পার্টনারশিপের রেকর্ড বানিয়েছে ভারতের বিরুদ্ধে।

আমাকে ২৮ বছর অপেক্ষা করতে হয়েছে, দেখতে হয়েছে পাঁচ-পাঁচটা বিশ্বকাপ যেখানে ওই ১০-১৫ দলের মধ্যেও বিশ্ব চ্যাম্পিয়ান হতে ব্যর্থ হয়েছে আমার দল। কিন্তু যখন শেষ অবধি জয় এসেছে ২০১১র বিশ্বকাপের সেই স্মরণীয় এপ্রিল রাত্তিরে নিজেকে মনে হয়েছে পৃথিবীর সবচেয়ে খুশী মানুষ।

(সুত্রঃ ইন্টারনেট)

ভারত ১২০ রান তাড়া করতে গিয়ে ওয়েস্ট ইন্ডিজে টেস্ট ম্যাচ, অলআউট হয়েছে ৬৬ রানে, সাউথ আফ্রিকার বাউন্সি পিচে ধরাশয়ী হয়েছে বার বার।

কিন্তু যখন সৌরভের ভারত সিরিজ জিতেছে পাকিস্তানের মাটিতে বা সেই অ্যাডিলেডের টেস্ট জয়, ইংল্যান্ডের সিরিজ জয়, টি-২০ বিশ্বকাপের ফাইনালে পাকিস্তানকে হারানো, প্রত্যেকটা দিন গেঁথে গেছে আমার মনে। সৌরভ, রাহুল, অনিল, শচীন, লক্ষণকে মনে হয়েছে নিজের ঘরের লোক। ওদের একটা অসামান্য ক্যাচ বা উইকেটকে মনে হয়ে নিজের কৃতিত্ব।

দল হেরে গেলে ঝগড়া করেছি অন্যদের সঙ্গে, রাগ করে খাইনি রাতে, স্বপ্ন দেখেছি ভারত জিতে গেছে, ঘুম ভেঙ্গে উঠে বসেছি। আবার জিতলে মিষ্টি খাইয়েছি অন্যদের, ধন্যবাদ জানিয়েছি আমার ইষ্টদেবতাকে। আর এই ভাবেই সাফল্য, ব্যর্থতা, উচ্ছাস, ক্রোধ এই সব মিলিয়েই সমর্থন করে চলেছি আমার টিম ইন্ডিয়াকে। ব্যস্ত হয়ে পড়েছি, সব খেলা দেখার সুযোগও পাইনা আজকাল, তাও এই দলটা আজও আমার বড় প্রিয়, আমার বড় কাছের।

(সুত্রঃ ইন্টারনেট)

আমার দেশের যে ফুটবল ক্লাবকে আমি সমর্থন করি তার এ বছর বয়স হবে ১২৫ বছর। এতো দিন ধরে থাকলে যা হয়, মোহনবাগান ক্লাবও অনেক ওঠানামার মধ্যে দিয়ে গেছে। ১৯১১ সালের সেই ইস্ট ইয়র্কশায়ারের বিরুদ্ধে আইএফে শিল্ড জয়ের গল্প ছড়িয়ে গেছে বাঙ্গালীর ঘরে ঘরে। তার পরে এসেছে আরো সাফল্য, ৩টে জাতীয় লিগ, ১৩টা ফেডারেশন কাপ, ২৯টা কলকাতা লিগ সঙ্গে আরো অসংখ্য শিল্ড, ট্রফি। কিন্তু এই দলটা গত চার বছর কোন ট্রফি জেতেনি। জেতা তো দূরের কথা, ট্রফি জেতার ধারেকাছেও আসেনি। সঙ্গে কর্মকর্তাদের নোংরামি, লোভ, খেলোয়াড়দের দিয়ে দলাদলি, কোন কিছুই বাদ যায়নি।

তাও আমি, শুধু আমি কেন লাখ লাখ মোহনবাগান সমর্থক দলটাকে মন-প্রাণ দিয়ে ভালোবাসি। প্রত্যেক বছর ফুটবল মরসুম শুরু হলেই স্বপ্ন দেখি এ বছর ট্রফি আসবে বাগানে। অফিস বা পাড়ার আড্ডায় মুখের মত জবাব দিতে পারব ইস্ট বেঙ্গলের সাপোর্টারদের।

ইউরোপিয়ান ক্লাবগুলোর মধ্যে আমার সবচেয়ে প্রিয় টিম তার নিজের দেশের সবচেয়ে সফল ক্লাব। তাদের ১৯ নম্বর লিগ খেতাব ভেঙ্গে দিয়েছিল লিভারপুলের ১৮টা লিগ জেতার রেকর্ড। ২০১২-১৩ মরশুমে তার জিতেছিল তাদের ২০ নম্বর লিগ। আর তার পরের বছরেই স্যার অ্যালেক্সের অবসরের পর ডেভিড মোয়েসের ভুল স্ট্র্যাটেজি, খেলোয়াড়দের ব্যর্থতা আর চোট-আঘাতের দৌলতে ১৩-১৪ মরসুমে ম্যানচেস্টার ইউনাইটেড লিগ শেষ করেছে সপ্তম স্থানে। প্রায় ২৫ বছর পর চ্যাম্পিয়ান্স লিগ তো দুরের কথা ইউরোপা কাপেও খেলবে না তারা।

(সুত্রঃ ইন্টারনেট)

আমি গত দশ বছরে ইউনাইটেডকে ৫ বার লিগ জিততে দেখেছি। দেখেছি কিভাবে স্যার অ্যালেক্স ফার্গুসন একদল সাধারণ খেলোয়াড়দের নিয়ে একটা অসাধারণ দল গড়ে তুলেছিলেন। কিভাবে বেকহ্যাম বা রোনাল্ডোর মত দলের সুপারস্টাররা চলে যাওয়ার কোন প্রভাব ফেলতে দেননি দলের খেলায়। কিভাবে ইউনাইটেড বার বার শেষ মুহূর্তে গোল করে হারা ম্যাচ জিতে ফিরেছে। সাত তো দূরের কথা, ‘টপ থ্রি’-র বাইরে শেষ করতেই দেখিনি কোনদিন। তাই গত বছরের ওই অভিশপ্ত মরসুম আমার কাছে দুঃস্বপ্নের মত। কিন্তু তাও সব ভুলে আবার অপেক্ষা করছি এই মরসুমের জন্য। স্বপ্ন দেখছি ডাচ কোচ লুই ভ্যান গালের হাত ধরে ইউনাইটেড আবার ফিরবে স্বমহিমায়।

ইপিএল থেকে এবার আসি আইপিএলের কথায়। যদিও আইপিএলকে আমি খুব একটা সিরিয়াসলি নিইনা, তবু এখানেও আমার একটা প্রিয় দল আছে। আর এই দলের গল্পটাই বোধ হয়ে সবচেয়ে মজার। কেকেআর মানে কলকাতা নাইট রাইডার আইপিলের সবচেয়ে চর্চিত দল। প্রথম তিন বছর কেকেআর যা খেলেছিল তাতে দলের নাম কেকেআর নয় কেকেহার মনে হচ্ছিল। ব্র্যান্ডন ম্যাকুলামের বিস্ফোরক ১৫৮ দিয়ে শুরু করলেও সাফল্য খুব তাড়াতাড়ি চলে গেছিল কেকেআরের ঘর থেকে। প্রথম বছর আট দলের মধ্যে ষষ্ঠ, তৃতীয় বছরও তাই। আর দ্বিতীয় বছরের কথা না বলাই ভালো। কেকেআর আইপিএল শেষ করেছিল টুর্নামেন্টের শেষ দল হিসেবে, সঙ্গে সৌরভের সঙ্গে কোচ বুকানানের সমস্যা, ফেক আইপিএল প্লেয়ার নামক ব্লগ লেখক নিয়ে বিতর্ক... এক এক সময়ে মনে হয়েছিল কলকাতার নাম নিয়ে এই ধাষ্টামোর চেয়ে টিমটা উঠে যাওয়াই হয়তো ভাল।

(সুত্রঃ ইন্টারনেট)

আর তারপর... খেলোয়াড় নিলামের জন্য সুনির্দিষ্ট প্ল্যান, সঠিক খেলোয়াড় চয়ন আর প্লেয়ারদের দায়বদ্ধতা। প্রথম তিন বছরের বাকিদের হাসির খোরাক কেকেআর শেষ তিনটে আইপিএলের দুটোতে চ্যাম্পিয়ান হয়েছে। এ বছরের ফাইনালের জয় জায়গা পেয়েছে রেকর্ডবইয়ের পাতায়। আজ নাইট রাইডার চেন্নাই সুপার কিংসদের সঙ্গে সঙ্গে আইপিএলের সবচেয়ে সফল দল। আর যতই মুখে বলি যে, আইপিএল সিরিয়াসলি নিইনা কিন্তু কলকাতার দল জিতলে ভালো তো লাগেই।

এতগুলো কথা কেন লিখলাম? কারণ আমি মনে করি যে জীবনের মত খেলাতেও উত্থান-পতন আছে। জীবনের মত খেলাও অনেক সময় অন্যায্য। জীবনের মত খেলাও সব সময় বলিউডের সিনেমার ছক মেনে চলে না। খেলাধুলোয় তাই ‘হ্যাপি এন্ডিং’-র সঙ্গে সঙ্গে ‘হার্টব্রেক’-এরও জায়গা আছে। এই ধরুন ভারত-পাকিস্তানের ক্রিকেট খেলার কথা। আমার তো সব সময় নিজেকে খুব ভাগ্যবান মনে হয়। আমি ১৯৯০ থেকে ক্রিকেট দেখছি। আমার সময়ে ভারত-পাকিস্তান ম্যাচের রেজাল্টে ভারতই হয়তো সামান্য এগিয়ে আছে। কিন্তু আমি যদি আমার চেয়ে বছর দশেক বড় ভারতীয়দের কথা ভাবি। তাদের দেখতে হয়েছে শারজায় মিয়াঁদাদের ম্যাচ জেতানো শেষ বলে মারা ছয়। শুধু ওই একটা ম্যাচ তো নয়, ওই সময়ে একের একের পর এক ম্যাচ হেরেছে লড়াই না করে, নিজেদের মনোবলকে দুমড়ে-মুচড়ে দিয়ে হেরে গেছে ভারত। আজ যখন বিরাট কোহলিরা হাসতে হাসতে হারিয়ে দেন তখন কি তাদের সেই পুরনো দিনগুলো মনে পড়ে। আবার আমি এটাও জানি হয়তো আজ নয়, কিন্তু পাঁচ-দশ বছর পরে আবার পাকিস্তানের সুদিন আসতেই পারে। তখন হয়তো আবার একের পর এক ক্রিকেট ম্যাচে পাকিস্তানের কাছে হারবে ভারত। ভারতের ফ্যান হিসেবে ভেতরে ভেতরে ক্ষত-বিক্ষত হব আমরা।

আর সেই জন্যেই ব্রাজিলের শেষ দুটো হার নিয়েও বেশী ভাবছি না আমি। হ্যাঁ, এই লেখাটা লেখার প্রধান কারণ হয়তো ব্রাজিলের গত সপ্তাহের ১-৭ হার কিন্তু আমিও জানি এটা ব্রাজিলিয়ান ফুটবলের শেষ নয়। আমার নিজের দেখা প্রথম তিনটে বিশ্বকাপের ফাইনালের একটা দল ছিল ব্রাজিল। তার মধ্যে ব্রাজিল কাপ জিতেছিল দু বার। রোনাল্ডো, রিভাল্ডো, রবার্টো কার্লোস, কাফু, রোনাল্ডিনহোর সেই ব্রাজিল ম্যাজিক দেখাতে পারতো। হয়তো সেই ম্যাজিক ৭০-৮০ দশকের ব্রাজিল দলগুলোর কাছে কিছুই নয়। কিন্তু তখনো বাকি দলগুলো ব্রাজিলকে ভয় পেত। তারা জানতো একজন রোনাল্ডো বা একজন রোনাল্ডিনহো হাসতে হাসতে তাদের দলের কাঁপন ধরিয়ে গোল করে দিয়ে চলে যাবে।

(সুত্রঃ ইন্টারনেট)

আজ ব্রাজিল হয়তো একটা মধ্যবিত্ত ফুটবল দল। আগের মত আজ আর ব্রাজিল যেকোন টুর্নামেন্ট ফেভারিট হিসেবে শুরু করে না। আজ ব্রাজিলের মাঝ মাঠে দৃষ্টিনন্দন ফুটবলের চেয়ে রক্ষণাত্মক ফুটবল খেলার লোক অনেক বেশী। কিন্তু আজও ব্রাজিলের একটা নেয়েমার আছে, যার চোট সেমিফাইনালে দলের মনোবলকে শেষ করে দিয়েছিল, বিক্ষিপ্ত করে দিয়েছিল। যে নেয়েমার চোট সারিয়ে ফিরে বিশ্বের শ্রেষ্ঠ খেলোয়াড় হওয়ার সম্ভবনা রাখে। আছে অস্কার, লুকাস মউরার বা কৌটিনহোর মত তরুণ খেলোয়াড় যাদের পেছনে ইউরোপের ক্লাবগুলো যেকোন মুহূর্তে কোটি কোটি টাকা ঢালতে প্রস্তুত থাকে। আর তাই জীবনের অভিজ্ঞতা দিয়ে বলতে পারি ব্রাজিলিয় দল আবার সাফল্য পাবে, আর এখানে সাফল্য মানে প্রদর্শনী ম্যাচ বা কোপা জেতা নয়, আমি বলছি বিশ্বকাপ জেতার কথা। হয়তো চার বছর পরেই বা হয়তো আমাদের অপেক্ষা করতে হবে আরও কিছু বছর।

কিন্তু ওই যে বললাম, আমি ২৮ বছর অপেক্ষা করেছি ক্রিকেট বিশ্বকাপের জন্য, মোহনবাগানের ট্রফির জন্য অপেক্ষা করছি গত চার বছর। ব্রাজিলের প্রত্যাবর্তনের জন্য কয়েকটা বছর অপেক্ষা করা আর এমনকি। আর যখন তারা ফিরবে... সেটার কথা ভেবে বাকিরা হয়তো এখন থেকেই ভয় পেতে শুরু করেছেন।

My Two Sporting Heroes

From a very young age I used to follow various sports like Cricket, Football, Hockey and Tennis. Also because of my reading habits I used to read a lot about these sports in the newspapers, old journals and books from local library. There was always a sporting culture in my home and both my parents love to catch a few games on TV, especially Cricket, time to time.

Being an egoist from my childhood, I always relate myself with some team or other. I always have a favourite team of mine and for most often than not I am one of those extreme, creepy supporters who can do anything for the team they support. That can include anything from waking up at 3 in the morning, offering sweets to God (as bribe or ‘Mannat’ whatever you call it may be), and  after team’s win to indulge in fight with random people in the streets in support of your favourite team.

I passionately support the Indian cricket team for as long as I can remember, may be except a brief period in 2006, but that’s a different story and I can never understand how so many Indian people could not support their own cricket team and constantly abused the team and the players. Yeah there are those bullshits like ‘Patriotism is crap’, ‘This is BCCI’s team and many others but seriously man when you have a cricket team of your country who are 3 times world champion, why the hell would you go and support teams like England and West Indies? And then, someone once told me, “I support Pakistan, I do not like Indian team and I will not support whites who are racist!!” Why not Sri Lanka then I thought, but also realized that the possible reason could be that they are too dark than his liking!

Except the Indian cricket team, the other teams I support passionately are Mohun Bagan Athletic Club, Brazilian National Football Team and Manchester United Football Club. The order is not necessarily based on the level of passion; it’s more to do with a chronological order of me becoming a fan of these 3 football clubs.

My family is a Mohun Bagan family, my parents support Mohun Bagan and it must be sometime around 1989-90, when the famous Bengali weekly ‘Anandamela’ came up with a special issue focusing on Kolkata Football. My father used that one to explain about Mohun Bagan club, the first Indian club to beat the foreigners to win the 1911 IFA Shield. He explained the importance of Mohun Bagan club and their status in Indian football. More than 20 years have passed and the love is still intact despite of a relatively tougher time for last three & a half years.

At the time of 1990 Football World Cup, I was only 6-7 years old but even in that age I was an avid reader and read as many reporting and articles I could about World Cup football and its history. Based on those books and very few available old football clips I found the Brazilian national team to be most attractive but most importantly Brazil has a rich history of their football and I was an instant fan of Brazilian greats like Pele, Garrincha and Zico. And by the time 1994 World Cup came I became as passionate Brazil fan as possible and I consider myself lucky to watch two of Brazil’s 5 World Cup triumph in the 5 world cups I have seen. The next one will be in the country itself and although the squad is not very strong and lacks co-ordination I still hope for a magic in their country where World Cup is returning after 64 years!!

And then there is the Manchester United Football Club, one of the world’s most famous football clubs along with likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan and Bayern Munich. Now call me a ‘Glory hunter’ or whatever you may like, but the fact is that I did not start supporting Man United from first day of my life. No one of us could, these are foreign football clubs and even till mid 90’s it was very difficult to even get news regarding these clubs. It was early days of ESPN/Star Sports in India and except the foreign tours of Indian cricket team what they would show was Baseball and basketball. And for people in Kolkata, football meant the worldwide frenzy which comes once every four years with World Cup football.

I read about Matt Busby and the Munich plane crash of 1958 and how that team had the potential to world-beater and how by fate they become part of one of the biggest sporting tragedies of the century. But most of my knowledge was based on history and frankly in the first half of 90s, I,  as a 10 year old boy did not care much about what was happening in English football

And then EPL started coming to India through ESPN and I followed those matches, watched post match shows, I knew about United, learnt about other teams, Liverpool, the Arch enemy, Arsenal, the other power house, Man City, the noisy neighbours  and then I started hearing two names regularly. Alex Ferguson and David Beckham, both were part of Manchester United football club. David may not be a great player but he was a star and Ferguson was a well respected football coach and a great tactician.  I started liking them, started liking the club and then came 1999.

1999 was arguably the best year for Manchester United in the Ferguson era. Not only the treble but that night in Camp Nou which made 1999 a legendary year in United history and I got more and more attracted to the team which had both great footballing tradition and a very strong current team with Ferguson in the helm.

My passion for United increased gradually. On the other hand,  early 2000 witnessed a  very interesting growth of  Indian cricket team. Dravid and Ganguly were moving towards their legendary status and new youngsters like Yuvraj, Sehwag, Harbhajan and Zaheer coming up. So most of my spare time was dedicated to cricket, Indian team and more specifically on Saurav Ganguly, the stylist southpaw who changed the face of Indian cricket with his unmatched passion and fighting spirit.

Post 2006-07, the passion in cricket went down somewhat. It could be a result of the overkill by ICC and BCCI by arranging meaningless series and tournaments. Also the team was changing.  Lots of new players were coming, Old warhorse like Ganguly got retired in 2008,  Dravid decided to play only test matches, IPL and other private leagues came to make cricket more of a product than a sport. And with all these my dedication for football precisely for United was increasing.

Now pls don’t get me wrong here ILP lovers. I am not saying IPL is bad, or do not follow cricket nowadays (I can challenge you in a cricket quiz any time, ok not everyone… like Abhishek Mukherjee), I watch cricket as much as I can, I was ecstatic with KKR’s win last year but at the same time my focus on football and United grew over the year.

I did lots of study on United players and especially on Sir Alex. I Read about him, got ‘Football- Bloody Hell’, his famous biography … The more I read about him my respect for him grew day by day.  Then interestingly I slowly realized that two of my most respected sporting icons have many things in common.

Yes, Sourav Ganguly and Sir Alex Ferguson may be from two completely different sporting backgrounds but there are a few common threads which connect them together.

Firstly, both Sir Alex and Sourav could not fulfil their potential as players but became great leaders and motivators. Sir Alex with 6 clubs in his 17 year long career and 171 goals could never play for his country and as a player he could only be called modest.

Ganguly on the other hand was much successful as a player with more than 18,000 runs in international cricket is arguably the best left handed batsman India has ever produced and one of the best left handed batsmen in his generation.  But I personally feel that we did not see his best performance and he could have achieved much more specially as a test match batsman, but as we know their leadership skills which are pretty unmatched in style. And obviously the impressive results they could achieve with the limited resources they mostly had.

Secondly, both of them were masters of working with a young team. Ganguly is considered to be the first Indian captain to build a successful team with young upcoming players like Sehwag, Harbhajan, Kaif, Yuvraj, Zaheer and even Mahendra Singh Dhoni in a later stage. No one can ignore the support he provided for some of these players in their initial not-so-successful phases of career. These youngsters could not get the World cup in 2003 but in 2011 when Sourav was long gone, the team that won the World cup had 5 of the above mentioned players as the mainstays in that team.

Even Ferguson did the same during his entire managerial stints and his legendary ‘Class of 92’ included Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Neville brothers who in their late teens at that time became stalwarts for their club and country for the next decade. Even Wayne Rooney and Christiano Ronaldo both were around 17 years old when Ferguson signed them and made them two of the biggest names in world football. Not only nurturing the young talent, but the way he supported them in their bad time, especially Beckham during post infamous red card in 1998 world cup and Ronaldo after the ‘Wink’ incident in world cup 2006 made Ferguson different from other great managers.

I do not like many Shah Rukh Khan Movies but one of them which I consider relatively better is ‘Chak De India’ and there was a dialogue in the movie something like, “Harr team mein ek Gunda rahata hain, aur iss team ka Gunda main hnu”. This dialogue doesn't only refer to the legendary blockbuster ‘Gunda’ by the master Kanthi Shah it is also quite true for both Sourav and Sir Alex.

Both of them are great leaders and the common trait in their leadership style was the fact that at their times as coach or captain they wanted to be the person who should call the shots, who should be on the spotlight. Because of that there were multiple times in their career when they got into tussle with fellow players, coach or other management staffs in the team.

Sourav always had issues with players from other teams and umpires, most famously the ‘Late for Toss’ incident with Steve Waugh. The nadir reached at the time of Greg Chappell being Indian coach, Ganguly was the main person behind Greg’s appointment as India’s coach post John Right but within few months the relationship grew sour and finally ended with Ganguly getting dropped from the team due to his poor form and some non-cricketing reasons.

Ferguson also had his share of issues with players and according to many people he never allowed anyone to become bigger than him in the club. For him the most infamous incident should be the kicking of boot which his David Beckham on face and resulted in David’s exit next season.

And finally the most significant similarity which I found for these two greats of their game is that only very few people during their era could generate so much polarized view as these two can get.

There are people who think Ganguly is ‘God of offside’, ‘The man who brought renaissance to Indian cricket’, ‘The first Indian captain who showed how to win abroad’ and a ‘True fighter’. But there are similar number of people who think he is ‘Slow, unfit with no proper technique, arrogant and has absolutely no contribution to Indian cricket’. His shirt waving in the balcony of Lords brings as much praise as criticism from Indian media. On the other hand part of Australian media who was always behind his back during his career finally accepted how they could only consider him as one of their toughest competitors and how much respect they had for his fighting spirit.

The story is quite similar for Sir Alex. One of the most successful and longest serving coaches in the history of football. Ferguson is hailed as an awesome tactician, great motivator and someone who has changed the face of England football and made Manchester United a super power and well known brand in the world, whereas his many adversaries would call him arrogant, hard to work with and even some would accuse him for controlling and pressurising the referees and FA.

At the end of the day, these two are the biggest names of their own fields and two of my most respected sporting heroes. No discussion of Indian cricket or Club football can be completed without at least once mentioning Sourav’s or Sir Alex’s name.

10th November 2008 was a sad day for me, the day I saw Saurav Ganguly playing for the last time in Indian jersey, bidding farewell after a successful 2-0 win over his fiercest rivals, the Australians. The game is still there and definitely the game is bigger than its players but somewhere in small corner of my heart the memories of Sourav Ganguly are preserved carefully & nurtured with affection & respect only for my recollection. Now I watch the game with more brain and less heart.

Sir Alex will have his last game on 19th of this month and yes he is also leaving with the success of the 20th league triumph (his 13th league title and 38th trophy overall for United) and I will be sad once again but the memories will be there. The memories of his tactical brilliance, of his passion and the memories of the aura he has built in his 27 years in Manchester United.

Thanks both of you for the memories and all the best for the future.

The (Digitally) Beautiful Game

It is another throw-in for Manchester United with 12 minutes to go.  They are now pressing hard to get the equalizer against AC Milan. Vidic throws the ball to Christiano Ronaldo’s feat. Ronaldo sprinted through the right wing with the ball in his feat, passed a couple of Milan player’s with his sheer pace. Then he cuts inside and passes the ball to Ronaldinho. Dinho was waiting near the Milan D-box, he receives the ball and for a split second thinks of shooting before giving a great through ball for Rooney near the left corner flag, Rooney crosses the ball for Van Persie who was there precisely in the exact place at exact time to head Rooney’s cross to the net and gives United the much needed equalizer. 8 minutes to go and it is game on!

After reading the above piece, if you think that I am little high on some drug or I am describing you a football match of some other parallel universe then let me correct you my friend. I am talking about FIFA, the computer game. Not only FIFA is the most popular video game designed by Electronic Arts but FIFA is a philosophy. It is a cult, FIFA is life. Scoring a 90^th minute winner in FIFA with your favourite player can give you the best orgasms you can think of. For many men FIFA is the serious competitor for their girlfriends and the biggest reason for their poor grades in exams

Wonderful gameplay, latest technology and innovative game mode options are only the few things which make FIFA one of the most popular productions of EA Sports but the biggest quality of FIFA is to give the player a feel of the real footballing world while playing the game. There’s no fake name of the players or club (A big negative in other sports games like PES and EA Sports Cricket 2007) as EA Sports have the license from FIFA and other country’s football association to use the real names of players and club. And with the most realistic feel with their camera angle, scoreboard, transfer season and news headlines it makes the players like me enthralled with this game year after year.

I first played FIFA in 2006. I was in IITK and getting acquainted with LAN and DC++ in my new computer and then some of my batch mates downloaded this game called FIFA 2005. I knew about Football and cricket computer games but never played it earlier. So in one of those nights I downloaded the ISO file for FIFA 05. And thanks to my Friend Suddha I installed it in my computer. Suddha is also the same person who told me about the wonderful ‘Career Mode’ in FIFA and explained how to manage a team throughout the season and how interesting it could be. I decided to give it a try. So in that night instead of playing the usual friendlies I started a career as a football manager in the virtual world of FIFA.

AND MY LIFE CHANGES FOREVER… FOR GOOD!!

It was 6 years back and I do not remember the details but at that time you could only start your career with small teams in relatively smaller leagues (Unlike now when you can start your career in Man United or Real Madrid) and I started with some Brazilian club and slowly graduated to manage Manchester United after managing Celtic to league win for couple of season. Quite Alex Farguson-esque you may call it.

FIFA 05: My first FIFA Experience

And then the game moves on. It was love at first session and I keep playing it in FIFA 07, 08, 10, 12 and now playing 13. Now I can say that I have seen this game to evolve, to grow in front of my own eyes. From a simple career mode where you just had to play your game keeping all your players fit and can buy almost anyone in Transfer season, this game now has become a complex but engaging exercise of man management which includes manage your players’ fatigue, keep reserves happy by making them play in unimportant matches and manage your team during international friendlies. Now a manager also has to keep the fans happy by playing their favourite players more and needs to do a thorough research in the transfer market before buying any players. Buying players from your rival is impossible and to buy players like Messi and Ronaldo you need to have a very solid team and bank balance. You also have to keep your board happy who can anytime come up with demands like ‘Buy a player below 22 years old’ even if you do not need one.  You also have to manage your finance by choosing the right sponsor and deciding on the best ticket price. It is a full-fledged strategy game now.

FIFA 10: One of my longest playing versions of FIFA

In last 6 years, I have played with various teams in manager mode. I remember winning EPL six times in a row with Manchester United before going to Real Madrid to win La liga for next 4 seasons and then finished my career with AC Milan by wining Serie A for rest of the seasons in my 15 years career.

And then there are times when I played in Championship with Hull City or played in La liga with Real Sociedad. The Real Sociedad one was memorable, as my target was to save relegation for the club. With some great results in the second half of the season thanks to some cheap buys in the January transfer window I finished the season in 10^th place.  But when I checked in google, I found that in real footballing world, Real Sociedad actually got relegated from the division A. I played with clubs in MLS and clubs with Mexico and South Korea when I got bored of playing those big clubs.

Among all the clubs I played as manager, I most enjoyed managing Manchester United, Real Madrid and AC Milan. It may be because these are my 3 favourite club teams in real world too.

If I again refer back to the first paragraph of this piece I can highlight another favourite aspect for me. I absolutely love how you can build a team with some of your most favourite players. I remember building a Real Madrid team in 2010 where Kaka and Ronaldo were my two wings with Ronaldinho and Ronney up front. It was a scary attacking force, scored whole lot of goals. And then there are times when you sign some relatively unknown players who become special in the real world after few years and you think not bad scouting ehh… Nuri Sahin was one such player which I can remember! I signed him in a low price in 2007-08, much before he achieves his stardom with Borussia Dortmund.

There are a few glitches in some versions!!

2012 was the year of change. My job was changed and I moved into a new city. The best thing which my colleagues and I found in our new office was that there is a play station with FIFA 12 loaded in it. What could be better for a group of young men in love with FIFA! It resulted in our top bosses finding us not willing to go home at 12 in the night! It was our first day in new office!!

And then the addiction only increased more and more. Now One vs. one, two vs. two even three vs. three players matches are going on whole day. For me it was a new experience in two counts. Firstly, I always played with my computer key-board and it was my first exposure to play station controllers. The second change was more interesting. For the first time I was playing against other real life players instead of a computer. It was completely new ball game with various players having various playing style and skill unlike a computer where you can pretty much decide the level you want to play. And I found this new style much more challenging than playing against computer even in its most difficult level.

Based on my experience of playing FIFA against other players in office and trusting my internet speed I plunged into world of online FIFA 12 games. I started playing matches against players from all over the globe. Players from Brazil, Slovakia, Germany, France and even India were my opponent at various matches. It was an awesome experience to sit in your easy chair in your room in Bangalore at 3 in the morning and play against another guy who may be playing from somewhere in South America during his post lunch break from study.

FIFA 12: More online games than career mode. I found Real Madrid to be  best team to play with!

Soon enough I found that there is a game mode where all your online game results will be counted and based on the results you will move up and down and get promotion of relegation in 10 division league system. And after playing for almost 8 months at various times of day from 5 in the morning after waking up to 5 in the morning before going to sleep, after many heart breaks and jubilation, after many curses thrown to EA for their mid match server disconnection I finally moved up to division one and then Won the league for the first time. And let me tell you mate, when I won it the feeling no less special than my favourite club wining the league after a hard fought season.

FIFA 13 was waiting on my desk from December when I got this as one of my many birthday presents by Shreya and I finally installed it. I have started a career with Atlético Mineiro because I wanted to play with a smaller team and this is a relatively unknown team (I am playing with it for the first time) with a great player playing for them.

FIFA 13: Just to show the improvement in graphic quality 

In some respect FIFA is similar to life. It is continuously changing like the real world and it lets you experience various emotions of life at different stage. I remember matches where I have conceded a 3-0 advantage and saw my opponent scoring 4 goals in last 15 minutes to win the match, I remember the pain, the disgust I felt that day. And then there were days where from 0-3 down in the first leg of a cup semifinal, I won the second leg 5-0 to reach the final. There are times when your star, someone like Wayne Rooney got injured in the first match of season and was out for six months and then there were times when you give chance to one of those guys from the youth academy with overall rating of 58 and that fellow scores a goal with booming shot from outside the box.

FIFA is an important part of my life for last 6 years and how much busy I may become in coming years I will always make it a point to keep it in its own place always.

For the love of Selecaos

"God created me to delight people with goals." Romario (Brazil, Barcelona and 9 other clubs)

I will go ahead and say God created the Brazilian football team to delight people with football.

XXX---------------------XXX

When I started understanding various sports in late 1980s India was a different country. No open economy, no internet, not even foreign sports channels. And hence like many of the Indian kids of that time I got familiar with names like Kapil Dev, Srikanth and Azharuddin pretty quickly. I loved cricket as a kid and that’s the very first sports which I adopt.

But then football has its global presence and own appeal. It’s difficult to ignore it and being a bong I started remembering names like Chima Okery, Subrata Bhatttacharya, Krishanu Dey and Bikash Pnaji and I still remember the evening when while watching a live match in the television my father explained why I should support the Mohun Bagan club and keep a constant dislike towards those red and gold players playing against them. But International football, what’s that? It’s only a few clips in the Sunday afternoon sports show in DD with Kishore Bhimani’s baritone.

Then came Italia’90 with its peculiar looking logo and a bubble gum which would give one free card with the picture of a world cup star and being the eternal fighter I get into a fierce rivalry with many of my friends to collect more cards than others. I remember having cards of Walter Zenga, Robarto Donadoni, Juregen Klinsmann, Careca and Roger Milla. I also went great length for collecting the card with Diego Maradona’s photo but not because I liked him because it was difficult to get.

And why I did not like him? Instead which player I supported? That’s the topic of this blog post.

During late 80s and early 90s there was a popular weekly magazine called ‘Saptahik Bartaman’, I think it’s still available but not sure whether it’s equally popular. My parents had a regular subscription of that and just before the 1990 FIFA world cup; the magazine started a feature where every week they had one page describing some key highlights of one previous world cup with hand drawn black & white pictures. I remember reading all of them from 1930 to 1986. I remember reading about ‘Battle of Santiago’, ‘The rise (8-3) and fall (2-3) of Hungary’, ‘The 1974 final where Netherlands took the lead before even a single German player touching the ball’ and ‘The hand of God’.

But the ones I remembered the most at that age was Maracana stadium and the heartbreak of 1950, Pele and the little bird mesmerizing the world in 1958, then again in 1962, and greatest Brazilian team of 1970. And I started having a soft corner for the Selecaos and knew that Argentina is the name of the arch enemy when I was just 6 years old.

Then came the actual world cup, I was in my Masimoni’s place, she was a big time fan of Maradona and I remember the party atmosphere on the opening day of world cup. I remember my mother saying, Argentina might lose! But no one took her seriously, why should they? Argentina, the remaining champs were playing with Cameroon, just another African country making up the numbers. But my mother’s strong intuition worked again when Cameroon gate crashed Argentina’s party thanks to a goal from Omam Biyik. I remember that I started watching the match but slept midway and next morning woke with news of the upset. I do not remember many matches of that world cup but I remember reading in the same ‘Saptahik Bartaman’ in the World cup final special issue about how Brazil was beaten by Argentina in the second round by the solitary goal from Cannigia. I read about the tears of Brazil supporters and my dislike towards Argentina just grew more.

Although I did not remember any other matches but I do remember names like Schillaci, Goycochea and Gascoigne and that was my short memory of international football for time being.

4 years passed and another FIFA world cup comes with a lot of hype because it’s happening in USA, the land of hope and dream. In those last four years I was busy with Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli, Anil Kumble and Hero cup win and India’s spin trio and home test wins but as the world cup came I have started rooting for my favourite yellow jersey. But that time I am 11 years old, read the newspapers and magazines in more details. I knew about the teams, their stars and the groups. The world cup being in US, the matches were really really late, and I remember lots of matches where I was scolded by my parents for sleeping with TV on. But I did make a point to watch all the Brazil matches staying up as late as possible. Romario was the hero who scored 5 goals to take Brazil in the final. The up-front partnership of Romario and Bebeto was lethal. And then Bebeto become the most popular player of that world cup with his baby rocking celebration after scoring against Netherlands in the quarter final just after few days of the birth of his 3^rd children. In the same match, Brazil very typically from a 2-0 score line managed to allow Netherlands to come back at 2-2 but then Branco converted a direct free kick from around 30 yards to take Brazil into the semis.

The final between Brazil and Italy started around 1 o’clock in the night and with 120 minutes of goal less draw and penalty kicks when it was finally over with Roberto Baggio’s missed penalty kick it was close to 4 o’clock. Never before I was awake so late in my 11 years of life. I was much tensed during the tie-breaker and remember spending some of it in the room and some of it in the balcony as I could not watch it out of nervousness.

The real transition happened from 94 to 98. Mind you, no internet and not much ESPN yet but the sports page of newspapers and magazines like ‘Sportstar’, ‘Khela’ and sports section of ‘Anandamela’ taught me a lot about football. I started knowing about the club football. I came to know about AC Milan, Real Madrid, Manchester United and Barcelona. I came to know about Copa America and UEFA Cup. Cricket was still my sports of choice but I was not as oblivious about football as in the first half of 90s.

The new megastar of Brazilian football was coming up. The shaved headed Ronaldo Luis Nazario De Lima came along with the group of superstars like Roberto Carlos, Dunga, Rivaldo and Denilson. By that time it’s not any more just watching your favourite team play, it was the whole hearted crazy support of the team. Fighting with friends in the school and memorizing history to use them in the argument. The prayers have started before the game and all the superstitions about what to wear and where to sit during a Brazil game in world cup has started.

That fanatism just increased in all these years, from the heart break of 1998 final to the ecstasy of the 2002 and then again the heart breaks of last two world cups it was a wonderful journey. I have a special feeling for world cup 2002, it was amazing to see how could one single man, in this case Ronaldo, came back like phoenix from the ashes of his mysterious illness to ’98 final to became the main architect of Brazil’s world cup triumph of 2002.

In the meantime another dimension of world football was opening to me. I came to know about David Beckham and the great man Sir Alex Farguson. I watched the highlights of their breath taking win over Bayern Munich in the Champions league final and became an instant fan of the Baby-faced Ole Gunnar Solskjær. Slowly my love towards Manchester United grew and with the advancement of internet I started following Man Utd religiously but I never stopped keeping track of my Brazilian heroes.

I do get upset about the fact that the most of the Brazilian players choose Italy and Spain as their preferred country for playing club football and hardly any big name of Brazilian team came to play in Manchester but I never stopped keeping track of Kaka, Ronaldinho, Pato and Fabiano and always wish them to do well whenever they are playing any match for their club side (except against United). I also have a special feeling for Jose Ramirez Barreto who is represents that awesome and rare combination of my love towards Brazil and Mohun Bagan. And when it comes to their match for the Selecaos, be it Copa America, Friendlies or World Cup qualifier I try to follow it and support them with as much passion as possible.

The world cup is going back to Brazil after 64 years in 2014 and although I have made plans with Kanad and Madhumitadi to visit Brazil to watch 2014 world cup but I do not know how realistic this would be but be it in India or be it in Brazil, in my mind I will be there with my heroes as strongly as possible, may be more closely as I know that this team is not as strong as the team of 90s or early 2000s. And that’s how I see a fan’s role become important. Everyone can support their team at the time of success but a true fan is who stays with his team even at the time of difficulty and heartbreaks. The life keeps moving and you never know the glory days may be just round the corner.

So, my beloved Brazilian team, keep playing well and keep entertaining people. Trust me, no other team makes football as beautiful and graceful as you can do and I do believe you know how to win trophies through your beautiful style. I will be always there to cheer you and cheer those mesmerizing moments you create on field.

                                                                                    XXX--------------------XXX 

My most favourite Top Five Brazilian player (In order or preference)

Ronaldo

Kaka

Ronaldinho

Romario

Cafu

My Most favourite Brazilian moment on a football field

Ronaldo’s two goals in 2002 World Cup final

Bebeto’s celebration in 1994 quarter final

Ronaldinho’s free kick against England in quarterfinal 2002

Roberto Carlos’world famous free kick against France