Aizawl FC- India's Very Own Leicester



Think of North-east India and what are the first things that comes to your mind? Rock and roll, scenic beauty, pretty women, and to some extent even football. In fact, Independent India’s first football captain, the man who was also the flag bearer for the Indian contingent in 1948 Olympics, Talimeran Ao, was from Nagaland. But inspite of this, teams from the north east have never ever come close to winning or even competing for the biggest honours in Indian Football( current avatar being I-League). But Aizawl FC are on the verge of doing a Leicester. And even if they somehow manage not to win the league next weekend, they have already created one of the biggest underdog stories in Indian sports history.

30 years back, Mizoram was not even a state. 15 years back, there was no individual from Mizoram who played professional football in India. And it was only in 2011 that Aizawl FC was reborn as a competitive team. If betting odds were common in India, before the start of this season, finding Subhash Chandra Bose alive would have had better odds than Aizawl FC winning the I-League. Even coach Khalid Jamil is one of the forgotten figures of Indian football despite having prevented clubs from getting relegated.

So how did they achieve it? When Leicester did it in the Biggest League of them all, they had everything fall into place for them. Something similar can be said of Aizawl as well.

The first and foremost reason why Aizawl are today where they are is because of the passionate fan following.  Like most stadiums in India, the stadium where Aizawl play their home matches is also called the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium. With the only difference that Aizawl FC is not any other IPL franchisee or a normal football club. It is an identity for the people of Aizawl.  In the last 6 years since they started playing as a professional club, never has a single match registered less than a full house. For the state of Mizoram, this is their only source of showing their sporting prowess to mainland India. And I tell you, Aizawl FC did it better than any Mizo could have ever imagined.

The picturesque Rajiv Gandhi Stadium


Secondly, a lot of the credit has to go to the Mizoram government for creating the ecosystem to develop young players. Because of the hilly terrain, Mizoram did not have too many football fields. But the government introduced artificial turfs across major towns and started organizing a lot of local and age group tournaments. With no big sponsors, the money spent by the Government in creating the infrastructure played a huge role in the success of both Mizoram in the Santosh Trophy in 2014 and now in Aizawl’s success.

Because of the ecosystem created and the emergence of a successful local league( the Mizoram Premier League), Aizawl had access to high quality local talent.  Even today, the core of the team comprises of local Mizo talent who had come across the ranks by playing in the MPL. And Jamil( aka Ranieri at Leicester) made some smart transfer moves in bringing Indian players like Jayesh Rane and Ashutosh Mehta, and also foreign talent in Nigerian defender Obunmeme , the Ivory Coast forward Bayi Kamo and the Syrian midfielder Al Amnah. With these transfers, he made sure that come the start of the season, Aizawl were fully prepared to take on the might of the Bengal clubs and Bengaluru FC.
The Aizawl FC Team



They have done something remarkable and Indian sports fans will well and truly remember this extraordinary feat. And if  only the efforts taken by the Mizoram government are replicated in other parts of the country, Indians will actually be able to support India in a Football World Cup in the not so distant future. Whether they actually secure the point they need to win the league on 30th April is immaterial. But as a lover of fairytales, I would hope they do and the rice beer will flow as freely as ever in the state of Mizoram.

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