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Over the last decade as European football began to find prominence in India, the sport began finding prominence not just in a select section of the old guard but also the young turks across rank and file. Something similar is the case with the city of Pune. Largely unmentioned in footballing parlance, it first found prominence with its own team in the I-League and now with the Indian Super League. It has cemented its position as a city that knows its football with its own franchise — FC Pune City.
There are supporters, there are critics and there are skeptics all of which constitute the quintessential football fandom. And this is true for FC Pune City as it is for any footballing team across the world. And whether or not the ISL will do something to boost the popularity of football in India is something that will unfold only with time as the league progresses. But what it has done before starting however, is generate the right amount of hype.
Having partnered with Serie A club Fiorentina for the ISL, the club is aiming to make an impact in the maiden edition of the ISL, as well as go about nurturing football talent, and teaching children to play the sport, the 'Fiorentina Way' as they like to put it.
FC Pune City has in its kitty a mix of international experience along with local home grown talent, which in the four practice matches played so far has provided the team with good results. The likes of David Trezeguet, Emanuele Bellardi, Kostas Kostouranis amongst others will not just increase the fan following for the team and the sport but also (as the team likes to believe) will get more people interested in taking up the sport as a profession.
Home ground: Shri Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex (The Balewadi Stadium)Capacity: 12,000
Squad
Goalkeepers: Emanuele Bellardi (Italy), Lalit Thapa (India), Arindam Bhattacharya (India)
Defenders: Mehrajuddin Wadoo (India), Daniele Maglochetti (Italy), Bruno Cirillo (Italy), Deepak Devrani (India), Kwang Park -II (South Korea), D Ravanan (India), Anupam Sarkar (India), Saidou Mady (Burkina Faso), Andres Gonzalez, Pritam Kotal (India)
Midfielders: Manish Maithani (India), Lenny Rodriguez (India), Israil Gurung (India), Davide Colomba (Italy), Tapan Maity (India), Ashustosh Mehta (India), Pratik Shinde (India), Omar Rodriguez (Columbia), Kostas Kostouranis (Greece)
Forwards: David Trezeguet (France), Dudu Omnagbemi (Nigeria), Joquiam Abranches (India), Ivan Bolado Palacios (Equatorial Guinea)
The club boasts of a 26-member squad. The biggest crowd-pullers include France's 1998 World Cup and 2000 Euro winning forward David Trezeguet, Greece’s captain in the 2014 World Cup Kostas Kostouranis and Italy's Emanuele Bellardi who will be the first choice goalkeeper for the team.
Likely XI: Emanuele Bellardi (GK), Daniele Maglochetti, Bruno Cirillo, D Ravanan, Kwang Park- II, Israil Gurung, Kostas Kostouranis, Lenny Rodriguez, Joquiam Abranches, Ivan Bolado Palacios, David Trezeguet (Captain)
Coach
The 59-year-old Franco Colomba, has had mixed success as a coach, ever since his early days of coaching the youth teams for Modena and Spal in the early ‘90s. Overall, since he started a career as a football coach he has coached a total of 16 teams, with FC Pune City being his 17th team.
Prior to coaching, he played as a midfielder in Bologna, Modena Sambenedettese and Avellino. While he has coached Italian teams that play in the Serie A, he has worked majorly with teams from the Serie B and Serie C in Italy. He has enjoyed success with the likes of Reggina, while he has coached Bologna, Parma, Padova, Napoli and Cagliari amongst others.
With four Italian players, David Trezeguet (who played for Juventus for 10 years) and an Italian coaching staff at his disposal, Colomba is firm on using a tried and testing coaching formula rather than experiment. He will depend heavily on the likes of Bruno Cirillo (who played at Reggina, FC Internazionale, AEK Athens), Daniele Maglochetti (who has played for AS Roma's youth team and Cagliari) to keep the defence strong.
Of his entire squad, it is his marquee player David Trezeguet who seems to have had the most impact on the team. Having scored in every game, he has already proved his intentions, whilst reaffirming his credibility from his Juventus, France and Monaco playing days. However, Colomba might be faced with a problem during the ISL, should his star forward be injured. Since his coaching style has been heavily centered around the playing style of the Italians, it might prove to have a negative impact on the team, if any of its Italian players are forced to sit out of games.
Owners
FC Pune City was officially unveiled to the world on August 21 this year. Owned jointly by the Rajesh Wadhawan Group and actor Hrithik Roshan the club colours (orange and violet) symbolise the tie-up with La Viola (ACF Fiorentina), with orange representing the colour of Pune and violet, its Italian counterpart. The club crest is a shield emblazoned in a fort with the words ‘Passion Honour Glory’.
Speaking about the club, CEO Gaurav Modwel says that the main objective of the club is to provide aspiring young Indian footballers an opportunity to play alongside international football players.
“Our association with ACF Fiorentina provides our players the unique benefit of being trained and coached in a globally acclaimed football ecosystem,” he said. Another point that he emphasises on is the grassroot level engagement, that will enable the club to spread the game. Given that the idea behind the ISL is to garner a steady and loyal fan following, it is not surprising that this finds a mention in the strategies for FC Pune City.
Interestingly at the squad unveiling Sandro Mencucci CEO, ACF Fiorentina said that one of the main aims of the strategic tie-up is not just to ensure that the side is one to reckon with in the ISL, but in the long run help bolster and nurture footballing talent in India.
How far will they go?
The playing style of the team is highly defensive, making use of counter-attacks to score. And while the style is also very physical, the team has been placing a lot of importance on its foreign players. That is not a bad thing, given that they foreign players will be also adopting a mentoring role for their Indian counterparts. What is a question of worry is the amount of pressure they will be subjected to once the league starts.
In all his press conferences, Coach Colomba has reiterated the fact that while the team is looking good, there is still a long way to go for them and it is only with every game that they will develop their strengths. With his abilities to score goals in the 18-yard box, Trezeguet is still a lethal strike force for the team. The defence on the other hand has Maglochetti and Cirillo along with Kostas Kostouranis and Lenny Rodriguez in the midfield which makes FC Pune City look like a compact unit.
With their current playing style, the team should be able to make it to the last four, but that is keeping an ideal formation with all of the team's foreign imports being able to play all the games over the next three months. But injuries might end up putting pressure on their Indian counterparts.
The major competition for them comes from the likes of Atletico De Kolkata, FC Goa and North East United FC. If the team can hold onto the barrage of quick fire attacks from these players and teams, and retaliate with swift counter-attacks, they would definitely have a good chance of making it to the last four.
