Sports

Playing Footsie

Infusion of foreign blood has made Indian football look healthier, but it needs more than just that

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Playing Footsie
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Have the Indians kicked their ball to the other side of the fence? How much of Indian football is really it? The steady stream of foreign footballers, particularly from Africa, Central Asia, West Asia and also South America, flowing into the various soccer clubs of this country, coupled with Mohun Bagan becoming the National League champions twice in four years have rekindled this old debate.

There can be no question that players from abroad have contributed to the evolution of domestic soccer in India, by improving local standards. Through the 1980s and 1990s the trickle, which had begun with Majid Bhaskar, Jamshid Nassiri, Cheema Okerie and Christopher Bernard, became a deluge with raw, muscular recruits and grizzled veterans from Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Iran, Iraq, Brazil and Uzbekistan moving in to join football teams in West Bengal, Goa, Mumbai and Kerala. This, however, has done little to improve India’s ranking-110th among soccer-playing nations in the world. Not even with newcomers like Jackson, Musa, Igor, Barreto, Stephens, Omello flooding the Calcutta clubs. Many now also play for Kerala, Goa and Mumbai as well.

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For instance, FC Kochin, a Kerala football club that turned professional only three years ago, has engaged 15 foreign footballers, mostly Nigerians, on short-term contracts. It, in fact, consciously endorses the Africanisation of Indian football. Chathunni, the club’s coach who crossed over from Mohun Bagan four months ago, observes: "They are not outstanding but they are strong and full of stamina." According to him, three players from Liberia who are now with FC Kochin have made a lot of difference. Agrees team captain Joe Paul Ancheri: "Eugene Gray (midfielder), Sunday Seah (striker/goalkeeper) and Issac Tondo (forward) are an asset. Their quick decisions at critical moments have turned matches in our favour." All the three players will be keenly watched all through the National League that began on March 23 at Thrissur. The expectations are high because the logic behind getting foreign players to play for local teams is that they make players of rival teams nervous.

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That, however, has been of little help for India to hold its own against even West Asian countries, with a playing history of less than 30 years. Avers Bagan diehard Debabrata Ghosh: "The situation has worsened. In 1911 barefoot Bengalis humbled Englishmen by winning the IFA shield-in a physical contact sport. This year, where would Mohun Bagan be without its three foreigners-Stephen Abarowie (Nigeria), Igor Shkvirin (Uzbekistan) and Jose Barreto (Brazil)-against other Indian teams?"

A sports journalist raised the question at a seminar: "Can Subrata Bhattacharya, a former player and now the Mohun Bagan coach, claim that his team would have won the championship without his three foreigners?" Unfazed, Bhattacharya countered: "We won seven matches on the trot without Igor, Barreto or Stephens. Our own Dipendu Biswas, Basudeb Mondal or James Singh were scoring goals regularly." He maintains that while the foreigners’ contribution to the success was immense, "Satyajit Chatterjee, Basudeb Mondal, R.P. Singh and others backed them". Avers he: "It is a collective effort. Do you think these players would have won if they had played for say, Tollygunge Agragami?"

P.K. Banerjee, the Indian Olympian who has coached both Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, however, differs. He told Outlook, "It is hard to arrive at a definite conclusion.... Igor and Stephen are over the hill, but both were great players who can still play very well. I have seen Igor playing for Uzbekistan, he is an excellent striker, who is menacing in one-to-one situations. Stephen played extremely well from 1996 to last year. This year he has picked up again after recovering from injuries. Barreto certainly has the Brazilian touch and flair, a real gamemaker who splits open defences and has age on his side."

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So when these three have all their cylinders firing, no defence in the country can stop them. And if a team gets ultra-defensive trying to contain them, chances are there will be gaps which will enable a James Singh or a Basudeb to strike. So, their presence certainly makes a difference to the Mohun Bagan side. "But," adds Banerjee, "most foreign players coming here are third- or fourth-rate Europeans, and second- or third-rate Africans, Iranians, Iraqis. Barring exceptions like Iranian Majid Bhaskar or Nigerian Emcka Euzego who made it to the World Cup squad."

He feels that the Indian soccer situation is complex. But he has little doubt that foreigners have improved local standards and brought back the crowds. "When Majid joined East Bengal along with fellow Iranians Jamshid and Khabazi, the club was very weak. Yet, the way they played, this weakness was never felt and no Indian team could defeat East Bengal in the late 1970s." However, neither their presence nor that of Cheema has helped in the emergence of any striking local talent. This, according to Banerjee, is largely due to the social change that has come over Bengal which, with its warts and all, still remains the centre of Indian soccer.

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EXPLAINS he: "Today, few parents are willing to let their sons play football seriously, although they line up in scores to admit them to cricket academies. The marketing that supports cricket is behind this. Sixty-seven per cent of television’s sports time goes to cricket. The economic crisis has also hit the middle class hard. Whereas earlier, some boys from large joint families could afford to and, therefore, would join soccer clubs, that is no longer the case today."

Though even an average player who has spent some 8-10 years earns between Rs 20 to 25 lakh a year, the foreigners certainly lap up the cream and that is purely linked to their performance and consistency. A senior sports journalist, however, differs: "Look at the money earned by Cheema, for example." He points to an element of corruption that bedevils these payments. According to him, it is impossible to assess how much money is actually paid out to the stars, Indian or otherwise. Vijay Mallya’s United Breweries group controlling the finances of East Bengal and Mohun Bagan has not necessarily made matters more transparent. Says a former player: "One reason why clubs like Churchill Brothers and the Salgaocar of Goa are doing well is that major industries back them. This helps them plan." It’s in stark contrast to Calcutta clubs where leadership quality has suffered over the years. He adds: "Until recently you had men like Jyotish Guha, himself a goalkeeper of class, or Dhiren Dey, a Ranji player for Bengal and an industrialist, running East Bengal and Mohun Began. They had football in their blood. But they have been replaced by faceless entities. Now people join these clubs to enhance personal prestige and club interests take a back seat."

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Besides, efforts undertaken at the local level by former players like Santo Maitra, Gautam Sarkar, Kajal Mukherjee and Bhattacharya to train youngsters at the grassroots level are foredoomed. For, neither does India want to spend the money needed to match western standards in coaching, equipment, nutritional requirements and training facilities, nor does it have football writ all over like in the Latin American countries, where single-minded passion for the game helps them shine internationally, despite their economic drawbacks.

Banerjee is right when he says: "Until we receive and are willing to give a fraction of this attention to the game, no one should really complain of our standards."

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