Psychological training the key factor behind Bagan's survival - Coach Karim Bencherifa

Karim Bencherifa

At a time when Trevor James Morgan seems adamant about resigning from the chair of East Bengal’s coach, Mohun Bagan‘s coach Karim Bencherifa, in spite of being a foreigner like Morgan, has set an example. Karim’s father, 71-year-old, has been suffering from lung cancer. The doctors in Morocco caught the deadly disease in November last year. And after last four months’ treatment, Mohun Bagan’s coach’s father will have to undergo a surgery in the third week of this month. While Morgan has been giving the excuse of home sickness, Karim has refused his club officials’ repeated requests to go to Morocco to help his ill father.

The Mohun Bagan coach, since last November, after his father’s cancer was discovered by the doctors, had gone home only twice. Karim, when asked about the reason behind cancelling his trip to Morocco to see his father, said it was not possible for him as Mohun Bagan had been struggling to come out of the relegation in the I-League. He says, “Being a professional coach, I cannot go often or I cannot leave the depleted footballers and take long leave for my father. Now, after the team has survived from the relegation, I am quite relieved and I can go to see my father.”

The Mohun Bagan coach calls his team’s survival from relegation this season in I-League, a historic achievement in Indian football in recent times. He explained, “Go by the statistics of Indian club football in last 15 or 20 years. Show me an example where a club, allowed to participate in the I League with zero points, finally has come out of relegation. I think, Mohun Bagan simply created history.”

The experienced Moroccan coach, explaining the key factors behind the team’s historic return to the I-League, said, “The key reason behind this achievement, I would like to say was the mental strength of the players who almost crashed when the club faced suspension and even when the we came back with zero points in the league table. But I never gave up. We went to Durgapur for a seven-day training at Mohun Bagan-SAIL football academy. There we did not train much with ball. We used to have some routine physical fitness training programme every morning. But we spent a lot of time by talking to each other. We often discussed about our previous games where the boys shined by their performance. Even after coming back to Kolkata, my instruction to the players was to talk in between after the training got over. So, the players interacted among themselves even in the evening over telephone. This was the psychological training I applied to build-up the team spirit and finally it clicked.”

Talking about his players, Karim had a lot of praise on Odafa Okolie when he stated, “He is always a match-winner. But you have to keep him always happy. I could do that as I had already worked with him in Churchill Brothers.”

On the other hand, Morgan, who has gone to Singapore to spend a week with his family, is still in a dilemma about continuing with East Bengal. The club officials still look optimistic that Morgan will change his decision and continue with East Bengal.