Latey Bhakundo

On the 6th of December 2008 came the biggest moment of my life as a football fan. The “Football God” himself had descended to Kolkata and I had the opportunity to attend his Press Conference at the ITC Sonar Bangla hotel. We reached there pretty early and were taken to the makeshift Press Area which was created at the hotel lawns. I just sat there and started to get excited to see non-other than Diego Armando Maradona himself. Never saw him play live but my Dad’s story about him and the recorded videos of his matches was enough for me to become his follower. During my school days, I had pasted his picture on my school dairy with a caption “God of Football”. There were nearly a hundred media people and all of them had that look of excitement on there faces. That day I think all the journalists had become fans. I also over-heard one scribe talking to another about a possibility of a photo op with the “God”. But the security was tight and we were kept ten feet away from the dais....

In the border town of Rangpo on the West Bengal side, you might see a group of boys training every day. Even in these tough times of COVID 19, they are turning out in the ground every morning to be in touch with their favorite game. The credit for encouraging these kids goes to the local youth, Sukraj Rai, and his friends. “Currently, we are giving football practice to the kids of our village regularly, even in this time of Lockdown because we don’t want these kids to be away from football and we also want to see their dreams of becoming footballers come true so I am training them continuously. For this many NGOs like the World Vision and Rangpo Youth Welfare Association, a renowned club from our village are supporting us.” Said Sukraj. He further added that they are hopeful that they will keep getting the support in future as well and even after this (Lockdown) will continue the football practice, they come to the ground at 5 am and after practice gets over at 6.30 or 7 am the se...

There are vast swathes of the country where the National Federation or the State Associations have not made any inroads. These are the regions where football is really popular but have not found much publicity in the mainstream media. The Kolhapur region of Maharashtra is one such place. Even for local matches, the stadium is full to the brim. Even in Karnataka football is popular with Bengaluru FC in the ISL but it has not touched the masses. The city of Mumbai was once known for its passion for football with Rovers Cup taking place there in the past but now the popularity of the game has gone down a bit, the onus is on the Western India Football Association and the city’s ISL team Mumbai City FC to bring, the glory days of football back to the city of dreams. There might be many other places where football is popular but we are not aware of it as there are very little publicity and media coverage. Hyderabad has a rich football history but, in the present time's the same ca...

Though he was a writer and an officer in the Government of Sikkim my dad, Purna Rai was a huge sports fan. football though used to be his favorite. He did not play much as he grew up in a humble household, where playing was the last thing in his mind. He used to tell me he didn't even have decent shoes when he was a boy. Later on in life, he also developed a knee interest in Volleyball and even attended a coaching camp in 1977 done by the sports department at Tashi Namgyal Academy ground. But slowly he drifted towards writing and that became his first love and he never looked back taking out numerous books most of which were a collection of short stories. He made a name for himself in the Nepali literary world. Deep inside however I feel sports always attracted him. I remember sitting with him and watching Lawn Tennis, He used to watch mostly the Wimbledon and Pete Sampras, Boris Becker and Michael Chang was his favorite amongst the men and in women’s, it was Steffi Graf, Mo...

DDSA is a youth football academy based in Dehradun / Uttarakhand It is aimed at providing superior and competitive football training, DDSA promises a truly International coaching experience with exposure to state-of-the-art training methodologies under the guidance of senior coaches from Spain.DDSA currently caters to children in the age group of 5 to 16 years, the formative period for any good footballer. Opened in March 2012, the academy provides progressive courses, each building on the skills learned in the last course, thus enabling the children to develop confidence on the pitch whilst having fun through play. Competitive matches are regularly held against opposing teams to expose the students to different styles of football. In addition, development squads are selected to help to raise the standard of play, especially among the more gifted players. The academy ‘s Head Coach is Ex-Uttarakhand Sr. Player Kulbhushan Dwivedi. He is also the State Coordinator appointed by AIFF...

Coronavirus has changed the world and it has changed football too. Now we are seeing matches being played in empty stands and the players not even shaking hands, just 6 months back non of us would have imagined this would happen. In India too the I-League season was canceled early and Mohun Bagan was declared winners with some matches to go as they had a comfortable lead. Now most of the Indian players are at home and keeping themselves busy doing many activities during this long period of lockdown. One such player is Sanju Pradhan from Sikkim, India International, and former East Bengal Captain who is now with Punjab FC. Sanju had a good last season helping his team finish 2nd in the I-League table. Ask Sanju about how is he spending the lockdown? “I am at home in Sombaria with my family spending some quality time with them, my wife is also teaching me how to cook and do a bit of gardening, we have a variety of organic vegetables” shares Sanju. He further added that it was ve...

Quietly one of my favorite player Bijendra Rai has parted ways with football last year and I came to know about it today. A top class forward who always played the game from his heart. He represented India in the age group levels from Under-16 to Under-22. Now that’s really impressive. Initially I could not believe it when he told me "I have quit football." He later added that the knee injury which kept nagging him for many years was responsible for his early retirement from the game. It's really hard for footballers to leave the game early due to an injury. It's so unfair, many of them have to take this call when they are in the form of their life and feeling like nothing can stop them now and Bang comes the injury. This lad from Sikkim played for many top clubs of the country like Mohun Bagan, Mohammedan Sporting, Bhawanipur FC, United Sikkim FC , Royal Wahindoh, Eagels FC, Chennai FC, Pailan Arrows, Gangtok Himalayan FC and Akramaan FC, IMG Relaince had al...