Live India, Love Football

So anyone who has been reading this blog knows that my first major project in India (my breakthrough project) was facilitating FCBarcelona’s entry into the country. Since then, my client Conscient Football, has been incredible in working with club to execute programming around the country.  In addition, FCBarcelona has sent two (2) coaches to live in India full time to launch FCBEscola, the Catalan club’s official football school. The progress of this project in such a short time is nothing less than extraordinary. A few camps and the planned launch of a school is all positive, but most Indians remain critical of such initiatives until they see “real results” which typically are “really unrealistic.” However, Conscient Football and FCBarcelona gave their critics something to chew on this past week, something which will certainly have people realize that this is no ordinary project. A group of nine (9) U-12 Indian players who were scouted in Goa, Jaipur and Delhi were all h...

Although the government may have most of the power, the real rulers of India are its Bollywood and Cricket stars.  These are the people who are adored by hundreds of millions of Indians who live in the country or in one countless countries around the world where Indians reside.  Even I’ve caught the bug a bit given that I’ve started watching at least one Bollywood movie a week and I’m surrounded by cricket crazy people including, but not limited to, my driver and housekeeper who worship the ground that these cricket players walk on. So given the above, it was nice to see that an event agency organized a celebrity football match where top Bollywood stars, including Ranbir Kapoor and Abhishek Bachchan, would be playing against top cricketers inside the cavernous Nehru Stadium in Delhi.  These types of events go a long way in raising the profile of and generating more awareness for the sport in the country. I ended up attending the match and slightly enjoying myself...

It’s funny, even though I’ve traveled all over the world many times over, I still get excited prior to each international trip I take.  My last trip proves how much of a child I still am when it comes to travelling as I couldn't wait to fly from Delhi to Munich where I’d only be spending 20 hours before flying right back to Delhi. Basically, one of my clients is interested in setting up a residential football Academy through a partnership with a top club and my organization is facilitating meetings for them with various clubs throughout Europe.  The first meeting happened to be in Munich to meet with the head of International Business for FC Bayern Munich, someone who I would now consider a friend.  I felt quite blessed for those 20 hours even though I was dressed very poorly for the -5 degree Celsius weather I encountered when I arrived.  Blessed that I got experience the chaos of India and organization of Germany and then the chaos of I...

My organization, Libero Sports India, works with both Manchester United Soccer Schools (MUSS) and Amity Education Group. We recently facilitated a partnership between these two groups which would bring MUSS to Delhi for the first time ever. As part of the lead up to the player development program which will take place in Delhi, the project director for Manchester United Soccer Schools India, Chris O’Brien, came to Delhi to speak with students, teachers and parents about the club and the upcoming program. I was fortunate to get the opportunity to spend the day with Chris going from school to school listening to his presentations. The guy is amazing.  I didn’t know what to expect but I’ve never seen someone speak with so much clarity, humility, graciousness, and humor while still delivering his key message. The other amazing thing was that he made each presentation with the same energy 6 times in a row without ever losing steam.  Simply incredible. I had only met Ch...

Anyone in the agency world can say that there are some projects which make you cry out and say, “Why me???” However then there those few projects which when you stop to look around you realize that it couldn't be more perfect. The Budweiser 6v6 Cup project I’m working on fits into the latter.  Football, fun (which means beer in this case) and fulfilling dreams of amateur footballers; 3 of my favorite things in life blended together into 1 awesome consulting project. We have only completed the Delhi leg of the 6v6 tour which includes a National Final to determine which team goes on to London to represent India in the Global Beer Finals.  So with that, I won’t give my usual, boring recap and commentary of my experience with the project however I’ll let some of the pictures I took from the Delhi leg speak for themselves. I will say that this tournament is the perfect platform to begin to connect the dots within the Indian football industry which is unfortunatel...

As a football consultancy, it is our duty to stay one step ahead of the industry when looking at the future of Indian football. For the longest time people have only mentioned three (3) places as opportunity markets for Indian football: Bengal, Goa, Kerala and now you can throw in the Northeast where a lot of talented young players are coming from. While all of these locations are truly football markets, we believe that talent and opportunity also lies in Tier 2 markets such as Indore, Baroda, Kanpur, Nagpur, etc… For this reason, I’ve been spending a fare amount of time visiting these places to better understand the football opportunity within the city limits.  The other day my colleague Sweekar and I took a night train into Kanpur, a city which is in the state of Uttar Pradesh.  I’m always overcome with a twinge of nervous excitement when I travel to these places which are off the beaten tourist path since I know that my trip will be a series of small adventures whether...

The other day team Libero Sports India played in the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Corporate Soccer Festival.  A year ago we played in the same event and lost in the final to a strong Barclays team. I scored 15 goals in 5 matches and proudly received the Golden Boot award from Coca-Cola India CEO Mr. Atul Singh. The whole tournament was incredible for me both personally and professionally as I regained my confidence as a player and made a name for myself within the Delhi football community.  Unfortunately things didn’t work out as well for me or Libero Sports India this year. We started off strong beating Pepsi and NTPC with ease even with our office housekeeper, Prakash, playing goalkeeper. I scored a few goals and felt my touch again.  Our quarterfinal match on Sunday morning was against WNS who were considered the best team in the tournament. We knew that if we beat them we would easily go on to the final.  After being up 1-0 for most of the match, w...