India had its identity in Football Way Back in the 50s, Time to get it back.

MAIDAAN. Such an eye opener for newcomers, bystanders or even active professionals working in the domain of Indian Football. That movie just goes to show how a visionary can weave his magic for his team and wreak havoc for the opposition for years to come.

If there is one SAF who created an unforgettable era from the Theatre Of Dreams in Manchester, we possessed a real eternal gem in the form of SAR - Syed Abdul Rahim. This personally is not an eye opening biopic for me even if the film has sent the right message to the viewer- We are capable enough to create history if we decide to take the right steps- one at a time.

I have been talking around various platforms about the "identity" that we must be known for- that will finally gel into a philosophy we need to work on in order to convert this into a tradition. Yes, it takes time, but 62 years ago we had already created something that could save a lot of time in the future as well- we could very well start from where we left off.

I used to ask people who interviewed me or talked over a podcast platform about the identity we show across sports where we are utterly dominant- say cricket or Kabaddi. If England has Bazball, Australia has its agressive approach, Indians are known for their supreme tactical and micromanagerial ability which is academic in nature. That is what makes us a force in the gentleman's game with an all round threat. Same goes with the physically demanding Kabaddi where our split second thinking across technical and tactical lines outplay anyone on their day- well most of the days.

When I share my opinions anywhere about the brand of football, be it podcasts or live radio or TV or print/digital , I have tried to put across the same point shown in in the movie in a magnificent way. IDENTITY. SHAPE. TRANSITION.TRADITION.

Who in the wildest of their dreams would have chosen to go with only two midfielders in the centre and going out with four attackers where wingers could play as inverted wing-backs in the 50s and 60s? Where the substitution rule was "just being considered" and modern equipment was not even in consideration?

I remember a coach of a semi professional team who was in his 70s talk about this and he proudly said that it was the "Rahim Saab 4-2-4" that changed the landscape of football in the world. Imagine beating South Korea and Japan through the sheer brilliance of having two physically fit box to box midfielders with supreme passing accuracy. Imagine having a number 6 and number 8 when those numbers were not even made popular back then. All of this barely 4 years before England lifted the Jules Rimmet Trophy at Wembley stadium.

Imagine losing to France in the Rome Olympics while facing Peru and Hungary in the same group, to have an incredibly universal support from a European crowd a spirited display, Imagine beating Australia in their backyard Twice, once through a rematch as well, only to see our boys go down to the Socceroos 2-0 in Doha when the latter faced the likes of Argentina at the Round of 16 of the World Cup.

Imagine having the world's third highest active international goalscorer from our own country only for the public to say "never heard of him- does he play football because he was bad at cricket?'

Something has genuinely lost track despite the progress that is seen around us. More than 6 decades of failing to reach a respectable stage at any Asian Games or even failing to qualify for the Olympics, barely struggling to go beyond the second round of the World Cup qualifiers, the probable solution lies in the archive of Rahim Saab's work. Scouting talent in the most unconventional of ways to working on the players' technical ability and changing the way they think about their game is what we have already known, a little bit of consistency and we should be able to capitalise on our mistakes to begin with. I won't mention about getting an instant change because after all we need to bring in the tradition.

I hope all of us associated with Indian Football in any capacity have gathered a lesson or two from the movie- about the way our game was approached back then and taking over from that deadly trio of PK Banerjee, Chuni Goswami and Tulsidas Balram to the likes of Lallianzuala Chhangte, Manvir Singh and Sunil Chhetri.

Indian Football, Onwards and upwards!