Help Booth

Wiser after stint in Ghana, Englishman says players need to rise to occasion to make I-League successful

IF what follows I-League’s inauguration on September 30 is to be dubbed our own October Revolution in football, the burden of effecting this metamorphosis lies on the square shoulders of Indian footballers. Englishman David Booth (pic top), Mumbai FC’s new coach, insists that India’s proposed pro-league — complete with all the structures in place, will still fall flat if players don’t rise to the occasion.

Booth’s highly fruitful years with a club in Ghana in the 90s coincided with the African giants making the first money moves on the future phenomenon Michael Essien, who was sold to Europe as a precocious 17-year-old. Now craning over an Indian talent pool not quite as bright as his eyes were accustomed to in Ghana, Booth is adamant only quality players can sell football in India. Other gimmicks are strictly secondary.

“It’s good to have a structure in place,” he says, on his second assignment in Mumbai after the earlier job with city-mates Mahindra United, but is prompt in adding: “But no good set-up will actually push it higher without good, serious players. It’s the excellent practitioners who will generate interest at all levels. You need to start finding a very high-quality crop. Players have a huge responsibility.”

Ghana was the only African team to reach the second round of the 2006 World Cup, and had earlier become the first from the continent to win an Olympic medal — a bronze at Barcelona ‘92. But the country boasts of a dedicated youth programme dating back to 1983, when their colts team travelled to the U-17 World Championship under the nation’s head coach C K Gyamfi, winning the tournament eight years on.

Ghana’s national league might not brag about brimming coffers and corporate cash-comfort — the launch-pad that India ideally aspires for, but the talent kitty has been over-flowing ever since a basic competitive set-up was put in place for youngsters. Put it down to natural talent or soccer’s ‘first-and-only’ status in Africa. “They are strongly-built and skilful and have a natural balancing ability, though they aren’t as high on stamina as the Europeans,” Booth says. India — not quite generously blessed with all that or yet to tap the potential — can celebrate the I-League, but with an undertaking to look beyond the starting-eleven.

“Today India is looking at the 16-17 age-group. But technical abilities are embedded at a much younger age. If errors are pointed out early, we’ll have a pool of 30,000 to choose from, instead of 30,” he says. All the biggies — Brazil, Germany, England — have a system in place to nurture that, alongside their more publicised leagues.

If an under-19 programme is being projected as development, Booth isn’t really impressed. “U-19 isn’t development. I had players who were 17-18 years old playing for my first team at Mahindras; they should be playing anyway. You need to very seriously look at age 12-onwards,” he shoots back, adding: “All Division 1 clubs need to have a youth policy of some kind, so that they have youngsters on their own dossiers to draw from.”

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It’s as simple as learning to walk before dreaming to run, and Booth, who is part of Mumbai FC’s community-football development experiment, notes that fans apart, the model should help them attract the really young talent.

Booth also backs a pay-hike for juniors/academy coaches around India, insisting: “You need to look at their remuneration. Remember, they are shaping your future.”

Booth sums it up succinctly when he says: “India need to guard against being second-best in everything.” Demanding second chances in their second coming would be asking for too much. Revolutions hardly afford those luxuries.