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Indian Football Transfers (Exclusive)
- by Armstrong Vaz
The football transfer in India season has come to a close, transfers which football fans closely monitored as they scanned for the weakness and strong points of their favorite club and analyzed other big guns of Indian football.
Fans, officials and all those associated with football know that the underlying principle of recruiting players play a key role in the composition and the level of success in the upcoming season.
Gone are the days when football recruitment in India was restricted to players playing from a particular state playing in their own backyard. Football agents and managers of club are moving throughout the football regions of the country to glean talent. Talent migration of football from one state to another state is the key word for Indian football.
Hyderabadi lads dominated the scene in late 60s and 70's contributing a chunk of players for the big clubs in Kolkotta and the national team. The current situation finds the north east region players mainly from Manipur dominating football throughout India. There are number of players in the Indian team to continue the flow of players from that region in years to come. Success of Manipur lads for the big clubs of Kolkotta, Goa and Mumbai have fueled a yearning desire from more Manipuris to follow suit in the foot steps of their senior players.
Football is a escape root for success, fame and money for the strife and poverty struck hilly regions of Manipur which have young people looking up to many success stories on the football field as role models worth emulating.
Khambiton singh (Air India / Salgaacar), Ratan Singh ( Churchill Bros / East Bengal / Dempo ), Renedy singh (East Bengal, Mohan Bagan and now JCT) were the ones who started the trend of moving out of Manipur to taste more success and add up to their purses toiling on the football field. The line of Manipur boys moving out, which was earlier a trickle in the early 90s is in full gush, thanks to the fame and money involved with big guns of Indian football.
In the current football scenario you find Manipuri players shattered all over India but in more prominence in Kolkotta, Mumbai and Goa.
Goan players who till in recent years had been averse to the idea of moving out of the state to display their football wares, have now shed the tag of being 'heroes only in their backyard.' Traditionally the Gaons had preferred to move to neighboring Mumbai, to play for the Mumbai clubs. Goans had preferred the Mumbai clubs as they found themselves in familiar home conditions and could easily travel from Mumbai to Goa as and when they got the opportunity. The cause was helped further with many Goan friends and family friends based in Mumbai.
The Rovers Cup served as a recruitment ground for the big clubs like the defunct Tata SC and Mafatlal to take talented Goans on their pay roll. Many a success story of the Goan football players has been scripted in the Mumbai metropolis.
The Mini Rovers Cup, the qualifying tournament for the main Rovers in which lesser known Goan clubs like MPT, now defunct Shantilal SC, Margao Cricket Club (MCC) and Salcete Football Club participated, found emerging talent going under the scanner of the big and prying eyes of the Mumbai club officials.
The Rovers Cup has lost its luster with the advent of the National Football League. Clubs and players of the national league are given all attention while the numerous other tournaments sailing on the same wavelength as the Rovers Cup have got saddled into the back ground on account of the National Football League.
Goans are now attracted by the big bucks offered by the clubs of Kolkotta. Former India srtriker Francis D'Souza along with Joseph Machado started the trend of moving to Kolkotta in the early 80s. They came back after a sting of one year playing on the Kolkotta maidans.
A negative impression was being created in the minds of other Goan players in the 80s. An impression that Bengali clubs were recruiting Goan players and confining them to the bench or giving them limited opportunities. After a long gap former international defender Franky Baretto again started the move. A career move from the paddy fields of Goan football to the Kolkotta maidan of football in the mid 90s. Franky served for East Bengal for just one season. A season which saw East Bengal lose to Salgoacar in their own backyard in the Federation Cup title match.
Next season Franky was back with Salgoacars and then curtailed his career with Vasco Sports Club. Then came the move of Alvito D'Cunha to Kolkotta, the only one who has successfully fought all the adverse factors to emerge on top and earn shower of praises for the last three seasons. The upcoming season too would find Alvito with East Bengal. Alvitos success has made many a Goan player think positively of moving to Kolkotta.
Two other Goans who have succeeded for East Bengal playing along-side Alvito are defender Mahesh Gawali and Climax Lawrence (last season). Mahesh incidentally started his career from Tata Football Academy (TFA) and his first club, along with another TFA batch mate rocky baretto, was Football Club of Kochi, Kerala. Mahesh in between played for Churchill Bros in Goa and again moved to Kolkotta, and now is with Mahindra United for the last two seasons.
Defender Selwyn Fernandes also tested the Kolkotta football scene last season playing for east Bengal and is now with Salgoacar SC for the coming season.
In the upcoming season John Dias and Bernard Pires have preferred to move to Kolkotta. The move of the former Salgoacar duo has been caught up in double signing jeopardy. Hopefully the duo would come out of the tight rope situation. Former Mahindra United defender Covan Lawrence would also follow his elder brother Climax Lawrence to the East Bengal camp. Covans transfer too has been caught up in a web of double signing.
Thus in the up coming season East Bengal will have four players of Goan origin on their roll.
It has been not just a one-way traffic from Goa to Kolkotta. Former Dempo striker Gautam Ghosh, defender Anit Kumar Ghosh, Sujay Dutta and Subash Roy Choudhary (all Churchill bros) have played in Goa. Goalkeepers Kalyan Chaubey (Salgaocar SC/Fransa Pax), Rajat Ghosh Dastidar (Salgoacar), Shabir Ali Mondol (Salgoacar) are the other players of Bengali origin to have played in Goa.
Shifting to the Kerala scene, the early birds from Kerala were during the period when Vasco Sports Club were cornering all the glory. T K Unni and Parkhot having their Kerala links in the 60's and 70's gave many a kerala player an opportunity to play for Vasco Sports Club. Kerala players had been reluctant to move out of Kerala except for the celebrated duo of I. M. Vijayan and Joe Paul Anchery. Kerala players moving to Kolkotta are far and few in between. In recent years A .S. Feroze and M. Suresh have sought to continue the trend of moving to Kolkotta.
Goans missed a chance to see the celebrated striker Papachan (Kerala Police) in action for the Goan club Churchill bros. Papachan signed for Churchill Bros in the mid 90s but was forced to reconsider his decision. The transfer of Papachan playing in Goa had reached to the chief ministerial level in Kerala. The kerala fans were determined to keep their favorite son stay put in Kerala and they succeeded in keeping him home. Goans thus missed out on watching the lanky well built strikers' prowess and knack of scoring goals. Another Kerala striker who donned colours for Churchill bros was P.V. Santosh. Yet another famous Kerala son who is held in high esteem in Goan football circles is former Vasco S C defender and coach of various Goan clubs T K chatunny.
Players from Karnataka and Punjab too have played for the Goan clubs. S Venkatesh (Salgoacar), R. C Praksh ( Dempo ) both Karnataka, Tejinder Kumar ( Churchill Bros / Dempo ), Virender Singh ( Sesa Goa / Churchill Bros / Vasco SC), Gurinder Pal Singh (Churchill Bros ) are some of the players from Punjab, Haryana, and Delhi who have displayed their talents before the Goan spectators playing for goan clubs.
The message thus is loud and clear for footballers in India, move out from the familiarity of home surroundings and test the waters in unknown territory for your own good and for the good of Indian football.
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Watch out for the next exclusive - titled: Superstars... and 'crazy' boys of the game - by gasper crasto
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