Indian football and the movie Invictus!!

Tuesday, Dec 2^nd 2014

From morning whole of INDIA especially the football fans were glued to TV and tensed like young aspirants waiting for the exam results. It does include me as well in the list. I was checking internet and TV updates regularly from morning but no news yet.

01.45pm Breaking news…….. I was in a restaurant to have my lunch. There was an absolute pin drop silence like in an empty parliament house and everyone was focused on the TV at the corner. Even the waiter had forgotten the orders we made and was deeply involved in watching TV. A live press conference from Delhi, the sports minister Rahul Gandhi was in centre of attraction.  He was smiling with a letter in his hand and sitting beside him was the AIFF president anil malhotra. He started to speak-“I am very glad to inform all the media people and people of our country that the beautiful country have won the bid to host the beautiful game in 2026. It will be the 23^rd edition of fifa world cup”……..he continued with answering the media officials.

Everyone around me had started jumping and shouting like a kid which had a won a race for the first time. I too got excited and we had decided to party hard tonight. Finally waiter came near us asked-“what did you order sir, can you do it once again please”??

Many were thinking to book the tickets now itself. I just remembered them its 12 years later not just 12 months.

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12 years later

This time there’s was neither shout outs in the parliament about the organizing committee nor in the media. Everything was planned in an absolute superb way. Prime Minister Rahul Gandhi and sports minister sachin pilot were the men who took the entire responsibility.

For the first time in history Indian football team had got more attention and focus than the cricket team. Even though it had qualified for 2022 world cup but was unable to reach the round of 16. The excitement was due to the victory of Indian team in recent Asian cup under the new coach zidane. He was more concentrated into practicing than to media avoiding unnecessary controversories. The former France captain was the perfect person to the subcontinent conditions. He had coached various international clubs including Liverpool and Barcelona from 2012 to 2023.He had full confidence in team that it would certainly progress till quarterfinals. Thereafter it depends on the courage and will power of the players. The organizing committee head Rahul Gandhi had made himself available in India for next two months. These days he was more into football than into political issues. Regularly he used to visit the practicing sessions of Indian football team and motivate them.

Monday, June 8^th 2026

The world cup kicked off by a brilliant opening ceremony in New Delhi. The theme song was a huge hit and it had composed by three great musicians-A R Rehman, Eminem and Amit trivedi. It also included performances by some of the greats across the globe. India was in group A which also included Germany, Chile and Cameron.

First match was between India and Chile. The stadium was completely packed up as expected. Which included all the celebrities of bollywood and many of the politicians were present to witness the beauty of soccer. In the most dramatic match ever referee managed to show red cards twice. List included our midfielder pankaj Singh followed by a fellow from Chile. Finally in the 85^th min jignesh Patel scored a goal which took us to the first victory. Second was against Germany it witnessed a hopeless performance from our boys. As a result we lost it 3-0, some media had started calling few of the players a demon whom they had called god few days ago. The third match was against the low profile Swiss team and we were short of a victory to reach the round of 16. A draw was also would have helped which was under the condition that Chile has to lose to Germany. The match was one of the boring matches of this world cup which included a lone goal and it was a self goal from the Swiss men. The result was 1-0 it took India to round 16 for the first time in history and the players had got their titles back from demons to god.

Excitement about the next match against Uruguay was sky high.            It was more than normal to me as I had booked the tickets to the match to be held in Bangalore. The high profile Uruguay team had a good blend of youth and experience unlike us which had got only the young inexperienced ones. Captain Mukesh mishra and zidane had a press conference in which they said “we are confident of winning against the men from Uruguay”. It made me sure that tickets in my hands will not go end up worthless. The match was one of best I have ever seen it went on till the penalty shootout and the brilliant effort by the goal key sandeep we won by 5-4. Sandeep was a regular goal key of Chelsea football club from past two years. It took me a complete 24 hrs to come out of the nervousness, excitement I had in the stadium.

Rahul Gandhi was in almost all of the matches of the world cup.  Both After and before the match he used to have a chat with mukesh and zidane regularly which the news channels made as their exclusives news reports.

The next match was after a long one and half week gap and it was against Portugal. The only concern of the men in blue was the injury of the defender debashish. A new guy named salman was all set to wear the shoes of debashish and make an international debut. No one was on their seats all throughout the match, everyone was shouting and screaming chak de India….!!!! The match resulted in 2-0 courtesy a double strike from the captain mukesh. In style the underdogs of the tournament were in semis. The next one was against all time favorites Brazil, which was all set to rock the floor. India football fans had supported the samba boys in many of the world cups. But this time the story was little different we had our own men to cheer, support and follow. Many of the players from the Brazilian team were idols even for many of our players. But game is all depends about the performance in just 90 minutes. The match had resulted in the favor of men in blue in the extra time.

The things here had changed a lot due to the entry of India to the big finals of WC. The view of kids enjoying soccer on the streets overthrowing the popularity of Cricket was common. The Indian football team members had crowned new heroes surpassing film actors and cricketers.

The final was against France. It had a proper mixture of star strikers and responsible defenders. Moreover they had got the brilliance of 2025 fifa player of the year William abagnale. He was the front candidate to win the gold shoe.

July 7^th-2026

The much anticipated and awaited final had begun with an early goal at the 5^th min by French men. Our players had their moments but couldn’t capitalize it. Till the 78^th min it was 1-0, there came salman scoring his first of the tournament. Which resulted in the extra time, thereafter it was an equal effort by both the teams. Finally penalty shootout was set to decide the champs of 2026. Unfortunately it resulted in the favor of French men. The only man who didn’t scored for India during penalty was the main striker jignesh. He was upset and went to dressing room with wiping the tears. During the post match ceremony captain mukesh thanked all Indian people for their support and love. He also thanked the prime minister and the sports minister sachin pilot for their efforts in bringing fifa world cup to India.

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…………it was almost 10^th time I had given my alarm to snooze. Finally woke up and 7.25 was the time. Realized am still in 2010 not 2026.

Newspaper headlines- another cwg scandal broke out in the parliament.

Due to the corrupt politicians and irresponsible committee heads of our country we are struggling to host an event like commonwealth games and being citizens we are dreaming of hosting big events like FIFA wc and OLYMPICs…

Will it be a dream forever?? It remains answerless….!!

ramanujan………. \raam/