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Considered one of India’s best goalkeepers ever, Bhaskar Ganguly has led a life of relative obscurity post his retirement after the 1982 Nehru Cup. Plagued by illness, the Indian ‘Lev Yashin’ as parts of the press fondly referred to as, had to curb his playing career but that hasn’t deterred him from maintaining a continued association with the game.
In fact, it was him, who during a camp following the 1992 Subroto Cup scouted a Baichung Bhutia in Sikkim. A firm believer in the tournament’s legacy, he believes it’s what can resolve our primarily footballing issues and the AIFF should perhaps take a cue or two from the way it functions.
“You see, the AIFF and the IFA have been running academies for a while now, but we really haven’t come across any success stories to emerge out of them. Subroto, on the other hand, has been churning out prodigies for more than 50 years. People like Shyam Thapa, Prasanta Banerjee and others have come out of this tourney,” Ganguly said.
Part of a team here appointed to scout players for the Subroto Boys Scholarship Programme, he mentioned with a deep sense of lament about how the authorities seldom follow up on the reports presented post the matches end, “It’s imperative that the kids are trained over a sustained period. Look at Uttam Rai, he was part of the academy here for 3 years; was sent for exposure trips to Europe and now he is playing professionally. That’s what is needed.”
“The AIFF has been sending people like us, but nothing comes out of all this if these kids aren’t allowed to carry forward the momentum. Last year, we saw this goalkeeper from Kerala do exceptionally well, what has he done since? Not much, and that’s really unfortunate,” Ganguly concluded.
Needless to say, Ganguly has a point; for all the hoopla that surrounds ISL and the I-League, we continue to slide down the pecking order in world football. As he mentioned, the federation has to look beyond its elite academies and Subroto can be the blessing that football in India is seeking.
