FROM
“How does it feel being at the top of the world?” a reporter
asked.
“Well, it feels like media is a great threat to you then”
Singh smiled after giving the answer.
“What’s the parameter of the pressure of being underdog and
now being the worthy side?” another reporter asked.
“Being underdog is a good thing that you don’t get to get the
pressure of winning or losing, you just have to play for fun. But being a
worthy side, is antonymous of my last sentence.” Singh answered again with a smile.
“Have you ever imagined of winning World Cup Football with
team India?” a lady reporter asked with firm voice.
A moment of silence passed through. Assistant Coach Jese
Farnandez waved his hand and told, “enough for today’s queries. Thank you all
for attending the conference.”
Singh and Farnandez got out of the conference room and went
to their suits.
I had a special permission to interview Jagjit Singh on
behalf of The Telegraph. I was waiting outside in the hall when Mr. Singh came
and waved his hand towards me. I stood up and we went to his suit. He ordered
two cappuccinos and we started talking. Jagjit Singh is now the coach of Indian
National Football Team, a team that have won the World Cup 2038. Being underdog
and qualifying for the first time in the world cup and winning it has been a
mystery to the world. After winning the world cup, the team never looked back
and now ranking 7th from 156th within 24 years.
I questioned him first
about his decision of taking the manager ship of Team India.
“It was 2014, Singh told, playing my last derby game against
Mohunbagan Football Club, scored a goal and assisted for two goals for East
Bengal. The crowd was burst out with my name, Jagjit Singh. It was one of the
most memorable day for me.”
“When I retired, Shri Praful M Patel, the president of AIFF, called me and we fixed a
meeting. I didn’t know about what reasons he wanted me to be met. Anyways, we
talked about the development of Indian Football. Suddenly he told me to take
over the responsibility of the team. I couldn’t be surprised more than that. I
mean, how on earth can I be a manager? I talked with my friends over that and
they told me to give it a try.”
“My first duty was to make sure that the players are getting whatever
they have to get. So, I contacted physicians round the world. The new thing I
added into this team that I did not borrow scout only for finding good potential
players but also I scouted for best coaching stuffs.
After a year my 1st
scout Manoj Rohani told me about a physicist named Andrew Santos who was
Portuguese by nation but got fired from Crystal Palace for a wrong treatment of
a player. Though I talked him over the phone because I was lack of stuffs.”
“Andrew joined the team after a week of talking over the phone with me.
The first word of him that attracted me was ‘if you want to win a match with
players full of potential, then first give them potential’. He brought me to
some sponsors but none was ready to sponsor a 156th ranked team. But
at last we saw a commercial of Nike where they create a shoe for the physically
challenged kids. With no time we went to talk to the C.E.O. of Nike Mark
Parker. Our first meeting did not go well. He told us to talk with the marketing
head of Nike in the South East Asia Mr. Sanjay Gangopadhay. We contacted him
and he was convinced quite a bit. I invited him to see a derby match in the
year `2017.”
“He saw the match and after that told me ‘I will talk about sponsoring
the team”, the thing he loved about Indian Football was the crowd of 1 lakh
people cheering for the support of their team. We were surprised to see Mark
Parker in the next derby game. His reaction was same.”
About after a minute of pause I asked him, “then? What happened? Did he
sponsor the team?”
He drank the last sip of Cappuccino. He started, “no. he didn’t. We were
in the situation of nowhere to go. Mark went back to the dressing room,
chit-chatted with the players and donated a sum amount of 10k dollars and was
going to leave the lobby when our captain Rohit Lamba stopped him and told him
‘sir, it’s true that we need money but we are not beggars. It’s your humbleness
that you are donating for our development but we need a stand, we need a man
who can tell after every match we lose that better luck next time, we need a
hand to pat on our back after we win a match, we need you to retain our
strength in the time of our crisis.’ I can’t ever forget those words. The words
that made Mark to hug Lamba. The next moment it was history. Nike became the
official sponsor of Indian National Football team. Yes, we performed very poor
after that and Mark was threatened to be fired from his position but he didn’t
ever stop sponsoring. We went down to the rank 176th.”
“We won the Nehru Cup and for the first time in the history of the cup
became the unbeaten champion in the year 2021. And from then on we lost only 27
games until we get to the final team list in the world cup football 2038. Rest
is history.”
Suddenly I found myself in the waves of water. I woke up. Mom was
calling me to get up and get ready for my journalism class. The 45 minutes’
interview was nothing but my subconscious mind. I just smiled and thought that
if the dream was not a dream. If my legend was ‘Jagjit Singh’ instead of Lionel
Messi. If the 156th rank became 1st.
