The rise and fall of Indian football The ever-changing story of a beautiful game

"India? Where is that supposed to be?? "

Ask any Indian to name his favorite footballer; the answer will reach your ears before you finish the question. The answer won’t be Baichung Bhutia, Suniel Chettri or any other national team player, but it is most likely to be a Wayne Rooney or a Cristiano Ronaldo. There is no denying of the fact that both the players mentioned are global icons and are recognized and followed by people across the world but every citizen has a responsibility to recognize his own countryman too, one who has done everything he could to establish himself as a footballer in a country where the sports section of daily newspapers begin with cricket and end with politics (which is an adventure sport in our country). An average Indian cannot name 3 national team footballers but he can name literally thousands of cricketers, and their wives, neighbors and pets also.

But the case of Indian football hasn’t been in such a sorry state since forever. It has seen glorious days too, days when playing football was deemed as an act of patronage towards the motherland. Those were the days when a bunch of barefooted footballers (Players of a club named Mohun Bagan, one of the oldest football clubs in the world) took the game as a matter of the national pride and defeated a much fancied British team comprehensively. The national team saw its heights when India won medals in Asia Cup between 1960-70.

Chuni Goswami literally owned them

It’s a well known fact that the days of a sport become numbered when politics creeps into the administration and the governing body of the sport. Sadly, politics brought an end to the glorious era of Indian football. During 1970’s, the people in charge of the administration became complacent and started taking things for granted. The administrators weren’t prepared to change the game to match with the global trend, and gradually the level of development in football of the whole world kept on increasing but Indian football still lied where it was before 30 years, trying to get solace from the memories of past victories and glories.

Today, football is the second biggest game in the country after cricket, but the loyalties of fans lie with teams from the South America or European Island nations. Thankfully, Indian football is on a rise since the last few years which brings a lot of joy to die-hard Indian football fans like me, who still believe our country is at par with any other country in the world. The giant might be in slumber right now, but the day is not far when it will rise to its former glories.

Spirited performance by India in Asia cup 2011

Long live the beautiful game in god’s own country