In 1977, news went around that one Edson Arantes do Nascimento, worshipped by football fans around the world as Pele, would be playing an exhibition match in Calcutta, as it was then known, with his team the New York Cosmos club against local heroes Mohun Bagan. The football-mad city was beside itself with excitement. Never mind that Pele, at age 37, was past his prime. We were going to watch an authentic global Brazilian football superstar in action!
Unsurprisingly, some 80,000 people packed Eden Gardens - the mammoth Salt Lake stadium was yet to come up - and set up a deafening roar when Pele ran on to the pitch. Wearing his famous Number 10 shirt, Pele looked trim, and the tight shorts footballers wore in those days showed off impressively muscular legs that, we were told, were insured for millions of dollars. For middle-class Calcuttans who knew insurance only through the humble LIC policy with its rock-bottom premiums, the notion of someone insuring only his legs seemed unimaginably glamorous. Our excitement knew no bounds.
The actual match was entertaining but mostly because we didn't have much exposure to international football in those days. Ending in a 2-2 draw on a sticky pitch Cosmos didn't push themselves in the sultry September weather and Mohun Bagan did the reputation of Bengali football proud. As for Pele, he played gingerly - the leg insurers didn't want him to sustain an injury, you see, someone in the crowd informed everyone else with spurious confidence (Eden Gardens spectators were nothing if not boisterously interactive in those days).
In truth, we saw little of Pele's virtuoso dribbling skills, though he did get some shots at goal. Not that we minded terribly; every time his foot touched the ball, we lustily yelled encouragement. For us, it was a case of full paisa vasool.
Memories of that naïve and unalloyed enjoyment were revived recently at the equally touching excitement with which Alessandro Del Piero was received on his arrival in the capital. Del Piero is the "marquee player" for Delhi Dynamos, one of eight teams that will compete in the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) football. He is one of a handful of former European and South American stars who will turn out for the three-month tournament starting next month.
Now Del Piero in his prime was undoubtedly brilliant and worthy of the worshipful welcome he received in Delhi. But from a footballing perspective he's seven years past his best. Del Piero is now 39 years old and hasn't played top-level football since 2012, when he left his long-time Italian Serie A club Juventus to play for Sydney FC. Though he did distinguish himself in the latter, it was in the decidedly lower standards of the A-League. Like America's Major League Soccer and the Chinese and Japanese leagues, the A-League is home to stars who've faded from the major European leagues.
On current evidence, the Indian Super League bids fair to becoming home to stars who are fading even in those secondary leagues. For instance, the Kolkata team, ambitiously named Atletico De Kolkata, has as a marquee player - Luis Garcia, 36. Once a mainstay of Atletico Madrid, he hasn't played top-flight football since 2009 and retired from professional football in January this year.
The ages of the marquee players in the other clubs range from 36 (Del Piero, Joan Capdevilla of NorthEast United and Nicolas "the Big Sulk" Anelka) to 44, the goalkeeper David James, coach and marquee player for the Kerala Blasters. The Brazilian Elano, marquee players for Chennians FC, is 33 years, a stripling by comparison.
The footballing establishment is hoping that this tournament will revive the fortunes of Indian football, sunk in the nether regions of the FIFA world rankings (158 out of 208 countries). This may have worked a generation ago when we joyfully turned out to watch an ageing Pele. But football spectating has changed dramatically, thanks to the liberalisation of TV broadcasting, the business that drives sport.
From the days when state-run monopolist Doordarshan thoughtfully broadcast the World Cup, first from the quarters on and later select matches from the first round, the explosion of sports channels now means that football fans are spoilt for choice. English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, the German Bundesliga, French Ligue 1, FA Cup, Champion's League … the very best of global football is available every week for even the most casual fan. It is hard to see how a tournament with some players well past their sell-by dates can compete with this.
If there is a value in the ISL, it lies in the exposure that local youths will get to world-class techniques and fitness that accrue from not just the experienced marquee players but from the global coaches - people like Peter Reid, Zico and Habas to name a few. The fact that the bidders are required to promote "grass-roots development" of football in their areas suggests that this is one of the concerns. If this actually happens, then cheers to the ISL. Otherwise, for Indian Premier League-type tournaments that are becoming all the rage in India, I'd much rather watch kabaddi.
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