Live India, Love Football

I remember back in 2009. I was still living in New York and volunteering as a coach in Landmark's Self Expression & Leadership program. Everyone in that program, including the coaches, had to design and execute a community service project. My project design involved helping Indian youth living in New York City identify their dream jobs and then setting up pathways and mentors intended to support their journeys towards there chosen professions.  I was able to confirm a few Indian community groups in Queens who invited me to work with their kids and even found a few willing mentors, but never got around to actually executing the project. Fast forward 7 years and now I'm standing in front of a classroom of 50 MBA students at Nirma University in Ahmedabad engaged in a straight conversation with them about having the courage and conviction to go after their "dream jobs." I put everything I had into that speech as deep down inside I feel that Indian families, society...

I know that I tried to be a bit too creative with this title. What I was trying to say is that when I first arrived in India a little over 6 years ago I had no voice (or was a novice) when it came to Indian football.   I was just some Indian guy with a thick American accent who tried to integrate the fact that I worked as a Director for Major League Soccer into every conversation possible.   People would listen to me ramble about the growth of soccer in the United States but would stop paying attention the second I tried to share an opinion on Indian football, which made sense given the fact that I knew very little about the industry back in 2009.   Now things have changed. I am by no means an expert, but I can confidently say that I know more about the business of Indian football than most people which is not surprising as I’ve fully immersed myself within this domain for the past 6+ years.   That being said, I must say that sometimes when I’m delivering a pre...