Still a Child When It Comes to International Travel

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 India all in less than 36 hours, blessed that I had the opportunity to spend 3 hours in FC Bayern Munich’s office discussing possibilities for Indian football and blessed that had a chance to watch so many of the English movies I’ve missed while flying half way across the world and back.

Needless to say and I’m sure I’ll be saying this till I’m 100 years old, I’m looking forward to my next international trip….





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3 Cities, 3 Football Academies

Image
Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to visit a few of the top youth football Academies in India.  It’s always interesting to see first-hand some of the blood, sweat and tears football administrators are investing into the future of the sport in the country.  Not to mention, I love experiencing different cultures, norms and idiosyncrasies in each place I visit (there are many).  I won't get too deep into my personal adventures and challenges of traveling through West Bengal and Punjab in the insanely hot month of May.  I'll need to save those for another blog.   I've included the places I’ve visited with some pictures. Pailan World School (Kolkata) http://www.pailanworldschool.com/ Workers putting in artificial turf for the new FIFA Youth Academy Chandigarh Football Academy http://chandigarh.gov.in/dept_sports7.htm The hostel where the CFA players live YFC Rurka Kalan (Rurka Kalan, Punjab...
Read more

Liverpool International Football Academy Coaches – Ray Curtis and Michael Rice

Image
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...
Read more

Barcelona

Image
A few months ago my client at Conscient Football and I were discussing options for an "Exposure Trip" we were planning for a group of Delhi based youth footballers.  The obvious locations came up; Manchester, London, Milan, Madrid, Munich, etc... But then Barcelona was mentioned and it was obvious that the meeting was over right then and there. There were no other options.  Barcelona is located in the country that just won the most recent FIFA World Cup, is home to the best football club in the world and home to the best football player in the world.  Why would we take the players anywhere else??? So fast forward to May 12th.  I'm at Indira Gandhi airport in Delhi with 3 other staff members meeting with 27 sets of parents and assuring them that their little princes will be fine.  I'm holding passports, collecting forms, smiling widely, shaking hands and doing my best to exude confidence and responsibility.  Somehow we get the 27 players thr...
Read more