THOUGHTS OF A FOOTBALL FAN

I just watched the Highlights of India vs Bangladesh match and felt a bit disappointed.I had almost given up writing about Indian Football but here as a fan have penned down some lines. I also remembered my dad telling me "Keep writing even if nobody reads it" and also with these lines from Evita with slight editing Chamling started clicking his old laptop

"Don't cry for me Indian Footbal
The truth is I never left you
All through my wild days
My mad existence
I kept my promise
Don't keep your distance"

I thought it would have been a cake walk for India in the present form but the match ended in a 1-1 draw. They say sometimes its hard to play at home with all the expectations, may be that came true for India on Tuesday playing in front of a vociferous home crowd at the Iconic Salt Lake Stadium. By watching the Highlights I will not like to comment on the technical aspects and also I have always believed in leaving that to the experts of the game.

But another thought came to my mind which is bit odd but I just jotted it down. The thought was what if players like Tulsidas Balaram,Jarnail Singh, Shabbir Ali,PK Banerjee,Chunni Goswami, Syed Nayeemuddin, Yousuf Khan,Bhaichung Bhutia, Sunil Chettri, IM Vijayan, Joe Paul Ancheri, Mahesh Gawli, Debjit Ghosh, Surkumar Singh, Subrata Paul, Bharmanand Shalwankar, Mehtab Hussian, Bruno Cuthinho, Steven Dias, Gourmangi Singh, Renedy Singh, Deepak Mondal, Syed Rahim Nabi,Jeje Lalpekluha, Sandesh Jhinghan, Sanju Pradhan,Nirmal Chettri, Somithai Shaiza and Basudev Mondol would have been born in the same era and our Football team would have been quite a force to be reckoned with. But its just a fantasy of fan who desperately wants his Country to do well in the beautiful Game.Sometimes we even talk about calling POI players and giving Indian Citizenship to foreign players to make our team better.

There were other great players too about whom I found out when, we had done a special program on the History of Indian Football. Thanks to Debayan and Novy Sir. Now I can recall the names of Navell D’Souza, Sahu Mewalal, Sailen Manna ,Ghosto Pal, Mohammed Salim, I might remember more names with a bit of research and help. I can also never forget the name of Late Krishanu Dey about whom I heard from many people. He was known as Indian Maradona due do his terrific ball skills. Late Pem Dorjee is another name which comes to my mind .He was known as a no nonsense rock solid defender. About another great player ,Shyam Thapa I used to hear from my dad. Urgen Lama mini can also never be missed. The list will go on but for now I will end it here with a mention of Jerry Basi and Raju Rai.

I have also written about a lot of them but at the moment I cant recall all the names. I am sorry for that but our players are used to being forgotten which is sad.

Also today I remember the lesser known players but for me during the growing up years they were the heroes when Live Football on TV was not much prevalent I remember players like Ram Rai, Steve Lepcha, Bhola Gurung, Crispin Chettri, Dinker Chettri , Mahendra Karki, Simon Subba, Sherab Lepcha, Devendra Gurung, Nima Thendup Bhutia, Ugen Lama, Sishil Karthak, Lakpa,Kamal Bagdas,Khamphu Kamei, Milan Lepcha, Manjit Singh, Puspa Gurung, KC Dadul, Babu Mani, Gunabir Singh, Kiran Khongshai etc.

Haha I started naming the players and now I am finding it hard to remember all the names but thank god I am not a big football writer so I guess they wont mind and this article is just to be published on my poor little facebook profile not at a big sports magazine or a newspaper.

Greatness comes even when your not well known. Even when you don’t promote yourself. My only advice to the young footballers out there is that don’t post everything on Social media and think you have arrived. You get 1k likes on your facebook but how many does actually come and watch your match?.SOCIAL Media gives you that fake sense of achievement sometimes and when you are not doing well reading all those nasty comments bogs you down.

Having said all these I still have tremendous hope on our current bunch of Indian players. They are doing well but need to be more consistent. Come on Boys at-least beat teams which are lower ranked than you,when you are playing at home with 60,000 people rooting for you. "Pressure lene ka nahi dene ka". In a way you people are lucky, just a few years back Indian Football was on it own, players used to get back from foreign tours and would have to go home on their own from the airport. No welcome no appreciation Nothing.I also recall the national team players not having a set training kits and wearing their own jerseys. Clubs were even worse when you had to wear Arsenal and Manchester United jerseys to training I used to argue with so many people who used to make fun of Indian Football on every aspect from lack of fitness to the uniforms they used to wear. Now our players look so smart. Travel to foreign countries for training stay in 5 star hotels and everything else is taken care of by the support staff.

Just add one more word to the question Hows the Josh? “Always”High Sir. Lastly I am not a top class football writer but as a fan I think do have my right to put forward my thoughts. I had sat down thinking I will write a very harsh one but I just could not do it because I know how a player feels after a defeat. Someone else doesn't need to tell them they played badly they will be fully aware of it and some of them would be crying from inside.

Thank You, JAI HIND, JAI INDIAN FOOTBALL, Keep Roaring the Blue Tigers!!!