Like a diamond in the sky...

He never shied away from experimentation as he never wanted his teams to play tedious drawn games. In his own words, ‘the beautiful game must look attractive and beautiful’ — Beyond the Goal.

It’s been a year since Amal Dutta passed away. Above somewhere, he must be drawing some sketches on team formation.

Four summers ago, I had met him for the last time at his Baguihati residence in Kolkata to compile one chapter for my book. 

"For me, a football team is like a society. Everyone must contribute to its development. The Diamond System was aimed at utilising each and every player when they attacked," Amalda explained his philosophy during that three-hour conversation.

He was the Euclid of Indian football, but also possessed a vast knowledge on literature, physiology and music.

Amalda understood the sport’s drawback in the country, but the people weren’t interested to listen to him. Maybe, they couldn’t fathom his ideas and formations, which were way ahead of his time.

His Diamond System with Mohun Bagan in 1997 made him even more famous and immediately hailed as a genuine thinker of formations and football ideologies.

“I derived the idea from Total Football. If everybody contributes with some earnings in a family, it’ll not only grow, but strengthened. You just can’t depend on a single person’s earnings to run a family,” he explained.

A caring coach, who instilled confidence in his players, he groomed young players from the scratch just the way Achyut Banerjee, Bagha Shome or Sir Dukhiram did before him.

I still remember when he patted and tamed the highly temperamental Chima Okorie after the Nigerian broke into tears following Bagan’s 1-3 defeat against FC Kochin in the 1997 Durand Cup final at Delhi’s Ambedkar Stadium.

After his era was over, most Kolkata teams discarded few good home grown tacticians and opted for foreigners.

This season, the clubs may have reposed faith in the Indian coaches, but probably they’ve already damaged the sport and also careers of some promising footballers.

Amalda wasn’t used properly in the Indian football setup. After the 1986 Nehru Cup, he was never recalled to the national team.

The AIFF, which always depended on borrowed ideas, dumped him and never gave him any coaching assignments.

He was the perfect guru, who could’ve guided India’s grass-root programmes but the federation ignored him due to his straight-forward and curt remarks.

They didn’t let him excel at the national level, but he cared less of their approval because his innovations always sparkled like a diamond. 

A date with Mohammad Farid

At my sister-in-laws marriage in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, almost a decade ago one of the guests asked, “You’re from Calcutta, so you would know Mohammad Farid. He’s my first cousin and was a footballer.”

When I told him that Farid, 58, was one of the most popular footballers in the 1980s and early 90s, he was surprised and acknowledged the family didn’t quite follow his brother’s football career as there wasn’t much interest. 

"We really didn't know about his achievements and, that he also played for India," he added. 

Not just him, in fact, most from outside Calcutta wouldn’t know or forgotten this unassuming former attacking midfielder much due to the fact there’re no write-ups on him on the internet barring some old Bengali football magazines.

Farid, who debuted with Hyderabad City Police in 1974 and played till 1977 in his hometown, preferred to stay away from the limelight after bidding adieu to a glittering career with Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Mohammedan Sporting and hanged up his boots with his office team Food Corporation of India (FCI) in 2000.

The purpose of this blog is to highlight his 19-year career in Calcutta and, also let the new generation know of this gutsy player who, incidentally, was the last Hyderabadi to play for all the top three Calcutta clubs. 

His fans in Bengal still remember his last-minute goal against Nepal in the 1987 SAF Games football final while some post old photographs from some of his outstanding performances on the Facebook.

“One of my friends introduced me to Facebook recently. It was a great feeling to have reconnected with the fans and old team-mates. I had never of thought of telling the world about my achievements. It wasn’t necessary because the love and admiration from fans and team-mates were sufficient. But thanks to FB, I’m flooded with a lot of friend requests from fans whom I don’t even know,” he said with a surge of pride.

Farid also represented the country at the Kings Cup (Bangkok, 1981), UAE friendlies matches (Dubai, 1981), Presidents Cup (Seoul, 1982), Asian Games (New Delhi, 1982), Nehru Cup (Calicut, 1986) and SAF Games (Calcutta, 1987).

I saw his cover photo on a popular Bengali magazine Khelar Kagoj after he joined East Bengal in 1981, but met him for the first time last year at our common relative’s place at Mehdipatnam, Hyderabad.

So, how did he land up in Calcutta?

“In 1980, I was selected for the senior national team for the 1982 Asian Games. The preparation had started two years before at the insistence of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The camp was held at Salt Lake Stadium. We were put up at Karunamayee,” said Farid, who was born on July 7, 1959. 

His coy and sober nature was always appreciated while his grit and determination were his assets on the field. 

“One day, the then East Bengal football secretary took me to a south Calcutta flat where I was offered to join them. Later, they kept me at Hotel Bliss at Ekdalia Road. They released me only after I had signed a contract. I was just 20 then.”

That’s how Farid’s journey to the City of Joy started. He was lucky to have played alongside star Hyderabadis Mohammad Habib (in EB), Victor Amalraj (EB, MS and MB) and Shabbir Ali (MS).

Farid performed with such steel and style that he remained a top catch for all the clubs in those golden years in Calcutta.

“I left East Bengal and joined Mohammedan in 1983, but switched to Bagan the next year,” he said.

In fact, Farid, whose real name is Shazore Alam Khan, had his best stint at the green and maroon club.

Those three years were the most enjoyable one in my career. I’ve had a very good experience at Bagan. I won’t ever forget Mr Dhiren Dey’s love and respect for the players. 

“He had a style statement and never spoke in Bengali. He used to address me as ‘Mr Farid’. There was no delay in payment and the club used to give me to-and-fro airfare to Hyderabad. It was a huge encouragement,” reminisced Farid, who rejoined Mohammedan in 1987 on a five-year contract.

Today, Calcutta is his home where he divides his time between his job at FCI and, in the evening gives free coaching at Salt Lake’s DL Block to poor kids from Keshtopur since 1992.

Jo Jeeta wohi Sikander

Syed Nayeemuddin always loved to stay at Hotel Bombay Orient, opposite to Karims in Old Delhi.

Khalid Jamil exults after the final whistle. 

Even when he was the national team coach, the Hyderabadi preferred no-star accommodation to the five-stars because he loved food at the Karims.

Nayeem was in Delhi to watch the 1997 Durand Cup and pick few players for the Kathmandu SAFF Cup.

It was at the Hotel Bombay Orient that I had met a rookie Mahindra United midfielder Khalid Jamil, who maintained a calm demeanour at the table as the Dronacharya spoke to him on his mistakes in one of the Durand matches.

“Aisa khel. Focus kar,” Nayeem told a young Khalid.

The Kuwait-born player nodded his head — his talent and shyness probably attracted the former coach to include him for the Kathmandu-bound squad.

“Doodh pio. Bina shehat ke footballer nahin ban sakte (Drink milk. Without a good physique, you can’t become a strong footballer),” added the Hyderabadi.   

Nayeem knew Khalid had talent to become an effective midfielder. His height was an advantage, and if he would develop his physique, he will be difficult to beat in the middle.

After a couple of good seasons with Mahindra, Air India and national team, Khalid’s recurring knee injuries him to cut short his international career in 2004.

He continued to play in the domestic league and played for Mumbai FC in their first season, where they finished sixth in the 2009 I-League, but injuries troubled him.

It was then the team’s head coach David Booth put Khalid in charge of Mumbai’s Under-19 side which won the title.

That was the start of a marvelous journey as a coach and today the 40-year-old is one of the best young coaches in the country.

His success as Aizawl FC head coach on Sunday would go down as one of the amazing feats scripted in Indian football.

Whatever little conversations we had during his formative years two decades ago, I found him one of the quietest among the Indian players.

Some writers compared him with Nayeem as someone who maintains a stoic silence, but his silence played a crucial role in his coaching career when he managed Mumbai FC for seven years on a shoe-string budget.

Khalid never complained neither left the ship like any other top professional coach would do. 

He hanged around there before taking up the job at the North-East club this season. Those seven years, in fact, was the beginning of his impressive coaching career. 

Way to go, Khalid. 

All India Football Reliance

FIFA President Gianni Infantino. 

So, someone who’s allegedly linked to a 'cricket' corruption can also pick a national 'football' coach?

The day I posted it on my FB timeline, there were few likes from some journalists, ex-footballers and football lovers.

The recent juggling of the various AIFF committees and sub-committees may force us to rethink if PP and Co. are really serious about the sport in India after they officially included its marketing partners in important decision-making bodies.

It’s also rare for commercial partners or sponsors to be given decision-making roles in national sports federations, but why AIFF has allotted the spaces to some including one, who was allegedly involved in cricket’s IPL corruption in 2013, is anybody’s guess.

I had an interesting chat on the topic with one of the senior journalists, who had covered more cricket than football.

He defended AIFF and blasted the top Calcutta clubs for having killed the game.

“If R is pushing the cash in the game, won’t they want their men to handle the show. Isn’t it obvious? It’s better than pozi cash coming to the clubs in gunny sacks. If the Indian Super League is drawing crowds and getting sponsors, why rant?” he asked.

I've no issues with money being pumped into the sport, but interference from sponsors is unwarranted. We also can’t rule out their demoniacal presence in the multiple committees.

Do we see Barclays' people in the Premier League management or FIFA being guided by their commercial partners? If a franchisee sells chicken burgers to its clients, it doesn't mean it has the right to sell football too just because it’s sponsoring some events.

When I told my journalist friend that Shyam Thapa, who will now head the new technical committee, have a better technical acumen than someone from cricket, he chucked, “Thapa is a dead wood. He doesn't even follow modern football. I consider PP a double dead wood. So let's flow with the tide.”

My friend supported the idea of having people from the commercial partners, but didn’t want Thapa. I really got confused with his unbalanced opinions, but I can’t blame him because anyone will find it difficult to solve this tricky AIFF theorem.

Meanwhile, the two top Bengalis in the federation — one non-resident and the other original — batted in favour of SR. They’re Indian football’s ‘Johor-Bhanu’ — Bengali films all-time famous comedians.

It was also funny to read one of their comments, “Everything is related to commercial exploitation. We wanted an outsider to tell us, with his BCCI experience, how we can actually improve the technical committee’s decision making.”

It’s difficult to forget the years in Calcutta: Amalraj

Amalraj introduces Mohammad Akbar, Surajit Sengupta
and Moidul Islam to legendary actor Dilip Kumar during a
Rovers Cup match in Bombay in 1980. Credit: Amalraj

My late dad was my encyclopedia on Calcutta football.

“Look at this player. Jersey No.14. He’s Amalraj. John’s brother,” he used to tell me whenever Victor Amalraj popped up on the TV screen during the Doordarshan years when the channel beamed the Derby live across the drawing rooms of several families in Bengal.

But I always wondered why Amalraj had that brooding and a serious expression as a player. In fact, I’ve not seen his smiling faces in any of the photographs from the 70s and 80s magazines.

Yet, he was an effective midfielder who possessed excellent passing and shooting skills. He also had the knack of being at the right spot at the right time, a quality liked by his coaches and team-mates at Mohun Bagan, East Bengal, Mohammedan Sporting and Indian national team.

I met him for the first time during my visit to Hyderabad at the Food Corporation of India (FCI) office at HACA Bhawan in Nampally last year.

The mention of Calcutta evoked memories of his wonderful years spent with the top clubs. His face lit up like a 1000-watt neon lamp.

“I miss Calcutta. I’ve played 14 years there. You’ve made me nostalgic. The city is close to my heart. It was my home. I can’t forget the years I’ve spent there,” said Amalraj, who made his debut in Calcutta with Sporting in 1978.

“It’s one of the fabulous cities which respect footballers. Even the washer men and rickshaw-pullers recognised and praised us, but I think the scene has changed in the last two decades. Football has lost a large part of its identity to cricket,” he said.  

Just like his elder brother John, who passed away in 2015, he earned fame and popularity in a city where top footballers gave Bengal film icons a run for their money in the seventies and eighties. Such was their charm and star appeal that most of the magazines during that era had cover stories on them.

John, who led Sporting to Calcutta League title in 1967, was a huge influence on him.

“He pushed me to go to Calcutta after Andhra Pradesh beat Bengal in the B C Roy Trophy final in 1976. I scored the only goal in the match. Railways offered me a job, but my brother advised me to go to Calcutta,” said Amalraj, a Deputy General Manager at FCI.

“I want to take a stroll at the Park Street and have snacks at the Flurys followed by a spicy dinner at the Amber. I would love to spend a day in Calcutta,” added the former feisty midfielder, who went to Calcutta in the late 70s.

As a schoolboy, he started at the Secunderabad-based Bolarum Sporting in the Senior Division Rahim League in 1974-75. 

Credit: Amalraj

Bolarum has produced some of India’s greatest footballers including Anthony Patrick, KP Dhanraj, Dharmalingam Kannan, Peter Thangaraj, Tulasidas Balaram all whom played in Calcutta.

Asked why football is dead in his own city, he said, “We need a sports culture in the schools, which lack infrastructure. The kids have a difficult choice to make between academics and sports. With such constraints, it’s difficult to produce good players. We can expect talent from small towns and villages, but not from cities. I'm hopeful that the U-17 World Cup in India will help develop the sport."  

AIFF's Jiyo campaign

Inept player selection, age-cheating and almost zero activities in most states have jeopardised India’s youth development programmes.

Last year, Jharkhand, who won the U-15 title, was punished for fielding five over-age boys. It was followed by 11 players failing age tests for the Reliance Scholarship Programme.

And we were told that IMG-Reliance is federation’s maa-baap, but the AIFF website won’t tell us this truth.

The federation tried to paint a professional picture on their campaigns, but the junior team’s results in the last couple of years aren’t encouraging.

Nicolai Adam and his U-16 boys should munch some Goa’s famed cashew before stepping out on the field against the United Arab Emirates today in the AFC U-16 Championships because West Asian sides have always been a tough nut to crack.

Saudi Arabia and Iran are their strong opponents in the group.

Former and current AIFF officials will nod their heads in appreciation of federation’s professionalism approach.

Some even twitted federation's hard’ work before the India-UAE match, but the truth is most teams still fake age in different junior tournaments.

The federation's flip-flop on coach selections is another issue. 

The Indian body hardly stick to one. After English, a German is now the current U-16 coach. There’re no senior Indian coaches in any of the national teams. There’re more westerners than the natives in the team management, a practice which is reflected in the clubs as well. 

We’ll have to wait and see if the AIFF’s grass-root activities claimed by them are real or just smart ‘media campaigns’.

Things will become clear after the hosts complete their group matches.

Over to Goa...!

Football in the pind

At Phagwara station, we virtually dragged ourselves out of the train. The rush was amazing. It was a Saturday and most Delhiites hop onto this particular train to head towards Golden Temple in Amritsar. But unlike our co-passengers, we got off at Phagwara. Travelling with a group of young footballers, we wanted to touch the pind (village) where football is next to religion.

We have so far heard about football cultures and traditions of Calcutta, Goa and Kerala. But Punjab seemed to be very different. As the bus weaved past the vast agricultural lands on our way from Phagwara station to Rurka (some 15 kms from Phagwara), we were thrilled. It was April end. Yet, the heat was tolerable.

A village in the Tehsil Phillaur in Jalandhar, Rurka is entirely different. It is a quiet, serene and a sleepy village. Other neighbouring villages include Bundala, Kahna Dhesian, Dhinpur, Bir Bansian and Pasla. In fact, Hans Raj Hans song 'Pind Diyan Galliyan' becomes so much true as the bus moved a little deeper into the rural village Rurka Kalan which lies on the Jandiala-Goraya road.

A youth football academy in a village? That sounds quite interesting. But before I write about the academy, let me introduce you to Gurmangal Dass Soni. Soft-spoken and affable, Gurmangal, however, isn't a former footballer or a coach who talks big about his past achievements. Neither he is a referee or anybody in the football establishment 'talking, talking but doing nothing'.
Interestingly, he is an electronic engineer who is crazy about football. In 1998, this young man now in his late-30s decided to create a football platform so that he can help and promote his own village kids. He left a cushy engineering job in the US and engaged himself to work round the clock for football, selflessly. Another interesting and honest fact about Gurmangal, he doesn't draw salary from this project which has 14 paid staffs for the 125 players and the annual expense has shot up to Rs 24 lakhs per year.

He formed the Youth Football Club in 1997 which soon got involved in a big way in football promotion at Rurka Kalan. With the help of local villagers and NRIs, he got a great amount of monetary support to run the project. With around 15-20 footballers, Gurmangal started his team, took part in tournaments and even started winning them. The cash awards won from the tournaments were deposited in a bank and soon he was able to collect Rs 80,000 from the prize money. His own family also extended support. They chipped in with Rs 1 lakh per year. The villagers also joined them in his effort to promote the game at the grassroot level.

The YFC has produced six international players from the current Anwar Ali (India and Dempo) to Surjit Singh Sandhu, Narinder Kumar Kaushal, Narinder Kumar Gill, Kulwant Singh and Baljinder Singh. Today the club boasts of a Youth and Sports Complex, which houses a hostel for 24 players, a computer laboratory, a multi-purpose gymnasium and well-manicured ground. Besides, YFC and the academy has also tied up with two schools where the students are given free education.

At present, the academy has 125 players in the U-12, U-14, U-17, U-19 and senior club categories. All the trainees are provided free boarding and lodging, kit and education. The Sports Department is bearing the expenses of the 15 students. The club has roped in four coaches -– Jatinder Sharma, Amarjit Dari, a former JCT player, and Kulwant Bunty, a former international player, and Mandeep Kumar of the Sports Department.