In many ways, things would come full circle for custodian Subrata Paul if he is selected to play for Jamshedpur FC in their first Indian Super League game on November 18 against NorthEast United.
A full circle because seventeen years ago, the man picked to guard the citadel of the club, waited outside the gates of the very complex they will call home for over two nights just so that he could get a trial at the Tata Football Academy.
“I still remember the day when Subrata first came for trials at TFA, actually they were already over and he spent two nights in front of our main gate. He refused to leave until we gave him a trial... Later I realised that TFA was his only chance as there was no alternative in life, no chance to return home,” the academy’s long-time coach Ranjan Chowdhury had said a few years ago.
Since its inception in 1987, Tata Football Academy has produced more international footballers for India than any other centre and it was understandable why Paul was willing to weather all conditions just to get a look in. At last count, 130 trainees represented the national team at various level from the 11 batches that have been inducted so far.
The setup has two programmes, the juniors or the under-15s and the seniors, also classified as under-19s. With the players closely monitored over a four-year period, and being provided solid exposure, at the junior nationals and a trip overseas as a part of an exchange programme.
India veteran Renedy Singh, one of TFA’s finest products, was full of praise for the academy’s strength-in-depth in the 1990s and Chowdhury’s talent-spotting skills, “Ranjan sir selected me when I was a 11-year-old. That was the only academy in India then. Russi Modi [Former chairman of Tata Steel] and Aditya Kashyap [Modi’s associate and a doyen of Indian football] got Sao Paulo and PSV Eindhoven to India, which is unimaginable now,” Renedy told The Field.
More than a quarter of a century before the start of the lucrative Indian Super League, Super Soccer Series, a brainchild of Kashyap, was a major draw with Indian football fans. Top clubs from Germany, Brazil, Germany and Holland fielded their junior teams in India.
TFA’s rapid rise meant that they could take on some of the best in the business at their own game. What was it that was working for the team? “The training, what we eat...everything – those days, we were the best. Would you believe that we beat Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Mohammedan Sporting,” Renedy added, illustrating how big a force TFA had turned into by the mid-to-late 1990s.
With nearly a half-a-dozen players from the academy walking into the India starting XI, the telepathic understanding between the TFA players resulted in success on the field. “There were lot of ups and downs there but we formed a strong bond, and we still remember it fondly till date,” senior India defender Gourmangi Singh said.
The 31-year-old defender was a product of the sixth batch of the academy, graduating in 2004. Subrata, Subashish Roy Choudhary and Debabrata Roy were his teammates then. Gourmangi, a winner of international 69 caps, also waxed lyrical about his alma mater, “I remain indebted to the the academy. I can’t explain it in words. I was a schoolboy in Manipur when my journey started. I had the most important four years of my life there, They [TFA] were the pioneers.
“As teenagers, we don’t have experience about many things in life. At TFA, we learnt so many things. The training sessions we had were the best at the time.” It was Gourmangi’s displays in the youth nationals that helped him rise to prominence.
The alarming lack of numbers
In recent years, though, the TFA no longer seems to have an endless supply of young talent, which was the case in the 1990s and 2000s. Between 1992 and 2010, there were atleast 12 players who earned international caps from each batch. There were only six from the class of 2012 and quite incredibly, just three from the lot who completed their course in 2014.
Some have criticised their policy of inducting only teenagers in their setup instead of grooming kids in their pre-teens, which is the case with most big clubs in Europe.
Any youth player worth his salt would tell you that he craves for competitive football. However, TFA, despite winning the National Football League second division in 2005, opted against rising through the ranks. Even Barcelona B and Real Madrid Castilla play in the Spanish Segunda division.
Akshay Das, East Bengal and India U-19 player and now senior coach at TFA, reasons the move as a combination of the academy’s philosophy and their Corporate Social Responsibility with the locals, which meant that they couldn’t sign foreign players unlike their counterparts. “What was our aim? Creating players or creating a club? If our target was to create players then what do we do playing at the senior level? The rest of the clubs would pack their lineups with foreign players with 33-34 year-olds. Will we be able to progress to that level and fight it out?
“In 2003-’04, we qualified for the second division but the CSR activity meant that we couldn’t couldn’t buy foreign players. That is the reason why withdrew at the time. We wanted to develop players. And the results are there for everyone to see..take players like Subrata Paul, Deepak Mondal Robin Singh, Renedy Singh or [Former India captain] Carlton Chapman,” Das said.
As for top quality talent running dry, with the exception winger Udanta Singh, Renedy called for some structural changes: “When I was there two-three years back, I wasn’t happy with with what I saw. How many players do you have from TFA playing in the big league now? We had a dozen of us in the mix for India at one point. It shows that they need to do better; they need to bring a few more good coaches in there.”
Das says the club had previously turned down an opportunity to feature in the ISL, before deciding upon finding a way to stymie talent drain, “For the last 29 years, we created players and sold them. We never thought about our future. One day, we sat and thought about creating our own players and seeing them blossom in front our eyes.”
Now, seven handpicked TFA players have been released to train alongside the first-teamers in the ISL. With new players entering the youth football market more than ever before, TFA have quite the task on its hands.