A handful of foreigners are making an impact in local football
If Odafe Okolie was playing in a high-profile league, he would have been a household name with his jerseys selling like hot cakes in the local markets of India, Thailand and Hong Kong. With 137 goals scored in 122 games over the past four seasons, Odafe’s record is exemplary. But since he plays for Goa-based Churchill Brothers, most of us would say Odafe who?
The Nigerian striker Odafe is one of the many foreign players plying their trade in India. In 2009-10, there were 33 foreign players playing across 16 football clubs of Kolkata. While Kolkata is still the hub of Indian football, foreign players are testing waters in other cities as well. The Ashok Piramal-group promoted club Pune FC has Brazilian striker Edmar Figueira and a Japanese midfielder, Arata Izumi, on their roster.
Harsh Piramal, director, Pune FC, says that the club believes in promoting home-grown talent but scouts for foreign players as well. “They come with the experience of playing in foreign leagues and add a lot of value to the team,” says Piramal.
The All India Football Federation (AIFF ) allows three foreigners and one Asian national to be part of any team that registers for the I-League, the top tier of Indian football league, and the Federation Cup, annual knockout football tournament. Out of these four, only three can be fielded at the same time. The majority of foreign footballers now come from African nations, with a smattering of Brazilian talent in recent years. Most foreign players come to India on a work permit. “We don’t have any trouble getting the work permit for our players,” says a Mohan Bagan official.
The national team coach Bob Houghton had lamented the fact that foreign nationals were flooding the Indian league and in the process hurting the national team. Houghton had a point. Last season, 485 goals were scored in the I-League, out of which 287 were scored by foreign players. However, Khalid Jamil, coach of Mumbai FC, believes that the rules clearly allow Indian players to shine and it’s up to them to make their mark. “There’s no such thing as promoting foreigners more, we pick players on merit and talent and not their nationalities,” he says.
Also Read
Although many Iranians, including the legendary Majid Bakshar, were part of the initial foreign talent that played in the subcontinent, the African invasion of Indian footballer started with the iconic Chima Okerie, the Nigerian who came to India in the mid-1980s.
In the past few years, striker Jose Ramirez Barreto has made inroads into the top domestic league. Barreto, who trained at Brazilian club Gremio — which has produced players like Ronaldiniho and Manchester United midfielder Anderson — under Luis Felipe Scolari, coach of the 2002 World Cup-winning Brazilian side, has had two stints with Mohun Bagan in the last ten years.
Obviously, foreign players in the Indian football leagues don’t earn even a fraction of what foreign nationals in European leagues like the English Premier League or Spanish La Liga get to earn. But, according to IFA officials, the salaries for top players have gone up at least 60-70 per cent in the last decade. Churchill Brothers’ Odafe, a top official of a Kolkata club suggested, has an annual salary nearing Rs 1 crore. Barreto’s annual earnings are estimated at Rs 60 lakh. Dempo FC striker Sunil Chhetri, who has signed for US Major League Soccer club Kansas City Wizards, used to earn Rs 50 lakh annually. The players capped for national team earn in the bracket of Rs 25-40 lakh a year from their clubs.
M Larsing, vice-president, Lajong FC, one of the newest entrants in the I-League is of the opinion that foreign players have been good for the I-League. But he emphasises that “a club should recruit the right player and not have them just because they are foreign.”
There’s no case of envy with locals as far as Pune FC is concerned. Piramal says they are paid according to what they deserve. If fans are to be believed then more foreign players would be good for Indian football. Bakshar, for instance, is still fondly remembered as one of the finest ballplayers to ply his wares in the country and others like Chima Okerie continue to be part of supporters’ banter.
Of the current lot, Barretto is revered by Mohun Bagan fans, who were heartbroken when he abruptly left the club in 2004 only to return a couple of years later. After a disastrous showing at the World Cup, England and Italy were two countries that blamed the influx of foreign players in their league as one of the reasons for their downfall. In India, however, if clubs are to be believed, foreign players are adding value, colour and excitement to the I-League.