Real Kashmir became the first club from Jammu and Kashmir to enter the elite football I-League. The league is scheduled to start in the last week of October and will be on till mid April 2019.
“We can be the positive story coming from Kashmir. I appreciate the media for putting out the good word. Now it is for us to do all the hard work and shine, we have no other option,” says the team’s veteran mid-fielder Khalid Qayoom.
Qayoom and the rest of the squad enjoyed a day out in Srinagar recently, cheering on the players of an under-18 state championship match at the TRC Turf Ground recently.
The two-year old club, started by two friends — Sandeep Chattoo and Shamim Meraj — initially just for “fun”, became the first club from the valley to qualify for the I-League by beating Delhi’s Hindustan FC 3-2 in Bengaluru.
Qayoom spoke about the many reasons why football has a “huge following” in the valley.
“Mehraj (former India player Mehrajuddin Wadoo) and Ishfaq Ahmed are the reason so many people want to become footballers. They are our role models. People see them as stars of the valley. God willing if we do better in I-League people will think the same way for us also,” he said.
A former Glasgow Rangers FC player, David Robertson who has been coaching the team since Jan 2017, compares the youngsters of Real Kashmir with the young players in the United Kingdom — where he has coached big clubs like Leeds United and Rangers — and teams in the United States, and says, “Players here don’t get fatigued. There are no complaints about fitness. Even if they are injured they continue to play. They are indestructible.”
The zeal and desperation to prove the point that Jammu and Kashmir football can match the best in the country can be gauged from the fact that two Real Kashmir players, Danish Farooq and Muhammad Hamad, played without any break in 10 matches during the Second Division I-League.
Dr Naseem Javaid Chowdhary, secretary, Jammu and Kashmir State Sports Council, sees the I-League as a turning point for the state’s football and has deputed his men to meet the requirements of the league. “New dressing rooms have been constructed in record time. We should be able to meet all the demands of the players. We are all set and are working on the publicity aspect, too, to highlight the feat,” says Chowdhary.
He termed the coming league as a historic opportunity for local talent to upgrade their skills and have a firsthand experience of how football icons play the game. “Now onwards, there will be no looking back for local football players. There is a football fever in Kashmir and this has come as a shot in the arm,” says Chowdhary.
