Live India, Love Football

Yesterday Indian National Team and Bengaluru FC captain Sunil Chhetri joined our weekly football match. Was great to be on the same pitch with such a great player and person. In addition to the feedback and energy Sunil added to the match, I loved watching him interact with our friend's younger sons who were both in awe that they too could share the same pitch with an Indian hero.

A little over a year ago, I wrote a post about how the Budweiser 6v6 initiative my team and I were consulting for was the “perfect” project given the brilliant combination of football and beer.   At that time I was only half serious although I do enjoy getting paid to conceptualize events which integrate play and celebration throughout each touch point which is what we were able to deliver for that program.   Now, we have been appointed as project managers for a new campaign which may have taken the pole position as the type of opportunity most closely aligned to my reason for moving to India.  Those who know me, know that although I’ve played, studied and worked in sports my entire life, I don’t necessarily enjoy watching and following sport as much as most people in the industry.  My reason for devoting most of my personal and professional life to this industry is because I truly love the social benefits which are associated with sport and I feel that I’...

The other day my colleagues and I went out to a 5 star celebration brunch with Libero client and Indian National team striker Robin Singh and his family. We had much to celebrate: to start, Robin’s wonderful Mother as it was Mother’s Day. She is the first “soccer mom” who I’ve met in India. There are few better sights than seeing her jumping up in down in the stands of Nehru Stadium while her only son is representing the country on the pitch. We were also celebrating the fact that Robin’s I-League club, Bengaluru FC, won the league in its first season with Robin playing a critical role for his team down the stretch. Another reason for celebration was the fact that Robin was recently selected to represent India in the Asian Games coming up in a few months. Finally, and most importantly, we were celebrating the fact that three years ago Libero Sports and the Singh family trusted each other to join hands with the mutual intention to support Robin in having a fantastic career.  The...

I happened to be back in Goa this past weekend and was fortunate to have the opportunity to witness representatives of Bundesliga club TSG 1899 Hoffenheim put on a clinic for boys from the Salgaocar FC youth academy. The event took place at Salgaocar FC’s home ground, Tilak Maidan, on a seasonably hot and humid summer morning.  Although it was clear that the Germans were exhausted from the heat and the hectic travel schedule which saw them in Delhi, Mizoram, Kolkata and Goa over the span of a week, it was still nice to see the Goan boys being trained by a group of players and coaches who recently got the best of global giants FC Bayern Munich in a Bundesliga match. Overall it was a good event, however I would have liked to see more public interest and interaction between the TSG players and the Academy boys.  Regardless, I left happy with the fact that I got to experience a program organized by a club which is not relatively known in the country but still was able to...

The last half of 2013 was one ongoing conversation about the proposed partnership between Liverpool Football Club and our client DSK Group.  We all knew that only good could come out of this relationship, however we also knew that the level of good would be contingent on the coaches which Liverpool FC selected to represent the Academy in India.  This point couldn’t be hammered home any harder as I’ve seen countless projects fail in India due to the international club’s inability to identify the right type of coaches to make the trip to India. It’s not that these coaches lacked technical expertise or coaching ability, actually that’s never the case, it’s that they lacked a positive attitude and patience.  I actually wrote a post about this which can be found a few months back.  The coaches selected to run the Liverpool International Football Academy DSK Shivajians, Ray and Michael, were handpicked by a trusted member of the Liverpool FC international programming...

I love Goa, It’s a wonderful place which always serves as a peaceful getaway from the hustle and bustle of Delhi life.  Thankfully, I have multiple clients in Goa which allows me to get down to this coastal state every other month on average.  Goa is different from the rest of India. Not only is it peaceful, almost sleepy, shaped by the Portuguese and predominantly Catholic, it is also a place where football is interwoven into the fabric of society, not cricket. For a football lover and someone works within the Indian football industry, this last characteristic of Goa makes it the perfect place to travel to, well, that and the amazing and cheap fish and prawn curry which is served at the local beach shacks.  I was in Goa last week for some meetings and experienced again why Goa is considered one of the so-called homes of football in India. There is just so much football going on everywhere you turn. I arrived on Monday and caught the first half of the Salgaocar FC v...

I only have a few family members who still live in India. All the rest have long migrated to and settled in the United States, Canada and Australia like millions of other Indians who have done the same over the past 50 years. The remaining few which includes my Dad’s older sister, her two children and their children all live in a city called Baroda (or now Vadodara) which is located in Gujarat, a state on the Western coast of India just above Maharashtra. I’ve been travelling to Baroda to spend time with family ever since my first trip to India back in 2007 and  my experiences have been probably the exact same as so many other NRIs of my generation who have traveled back to India to visit family. It’s a potpourri of long hours sitting around gossiping, uncomfortable heat and facilities, big meals followed by more sitting around, trips to the local park or mall and discussions about whose getting married next.  Although I’m making it sound unenjoyable, my trips to Baroda ...