Football’s presence in India has largely been associated with states like West Bengal, Kerala, Goa and the Northeast. The little glory the country has seen in the sport has come forth largely through players from these pockets.
The recent selection of Aniket Jadhav in India’s Fifa U-17 World Cup squad has, however, put the spotlight on another footballing centre – Kolhapur – that has been largely forgotten in recent times.
Jadhav, like most youngsters from the city, fell in love with the beautiful game early on. It was along with his father that Jadhav would watch football games at the Rajarshi Shahu Stadium, known for its packed houses.
The seed of the football fervour in the now 17-year-old lad was sown then, admits his proud father, Anil Jadhav.
Born in a family of limited means, Aniket Jadhav’s future was uncertain. His father worked for nearly two decades as worker at a factory in Kolhapur. Other than Aniket, Anil Jadhav had the responsibility of caring for his daughter, wife and mother. Aniket’s obsession for football had little room in their household, which at the time consisted of modest two-room home.
With hard-work, in recent years, Anil has bought an auto-rickshaw and now runs the household from what he earns as he drives it around the city. Despite the circumstances, Aniket’s goals were set firmly on scoring them.
“He has been obsessed with football since childhood,” said Anil. “Unlike, most parts of the country, football is widely followed in Kolhapur. Our efforts to have him focus his energies on other vocations always proved futile.” added Anil, who along with the rest of his family are making their final preparations before leaving for Delhi to watch their son in action.
World Cup via Pune, Mumbai
Finding a spot in India’s U-17 World Cup squad, though, was not an easy one for Jadhav. The journey, which began in Kolhapur, traversed through Pune and then to Mumbai, where he was ultimately discovered and picked as the only member of the team from Maharashtra.
Jadhav’s first steps towards fulfilling his football dream began thanks largely to the Krida Prabodhini School, an initiative of the Maharashtra government aimed at nurturing budding sportsmen from under-privileged backgrounds.
It was at one such trial in Sangli that Jadhav met coach Jaideep Angriwal. The Kolhapuri lad at the time was just nine years old, and had spent one year at the school.
“In the school, the first year is all about basic training,” said Angriwal, who heads the football programme of Krida Prabodhini in Pune. “A student then is made to play every sport. At the end of the year, the coaches assess which sport a child should pursue.”
He added, “Aniket at the time was earmarked to be a long-distance runner by the coaches there. But when I interacted with him he was insistent that he wanted to play football. For child so young, I was amazed at his conviction.”
Jadhav stuck to his stance and was soon transferred to Balewadi Stadium in Pune to train as a footballer under the tutelage of Angriwal. “He was hard-working and determined from the moment he set foot at the academy,” said Angriwal, a former Santosh Trophy player himself. “There some youngsters that you want to see work hard, and Aniket was one of them.”
He added, “It did not take him long to start training drills, which we usually reserve for our senior wards. He was trying out bicycle and scissor kicks long before it was even necessary. We were scared that he would injure himself. We don’t have foam mats like the foreign players.”
Jadhav faced his first failure at the age of 11. In Nagpur for a Maharashtra Under-14 trial, the would-be midfielder had to return dejected, recalls Angriwal.
The coach’s guidance, though, helped kept the lad on track. Keeping his potential in mind, Angriwal requested Pune FC to include Aniket along with a few other promising youngsters from his school into their age-group programme.
Finding his groove with Pune FC
Jadhav climbed up the ladder quickly. He represented Pune FC’s Under-15 team. He gradually moved up to their Under-17 and Under-19 teams.
By then, the All India Football Federation had begun trials for the India Under-17 team. A few bureaucratic hurdles stopped him from participating in the trials in Pune as well as Kolhapur. As a last straw, he travelled to Mumbai, where he was picked in the preliminary squad after just ten minutes into his drill, claimed Angriwal.
When the final list of 21 was announced, Jadhav’s was the first name on the sheet. Back in Kolhapur, the Jadhav household erupted in joy. Today, the family is much sought after. Since his selection in the team, the family has been hounded by the press and politicians.
“He’s our only son,” said Anil Jadhav. “For much of the initial years, all we thought was getting him back home. We did not take football seriously. As he went up the ladder. We thought at the most it could help him secure a government job. Today, the government is approaching us with messages. What more can I ask of my boy.”
Hoardings congratulating the youngster dot Kolhapur. With Aniket away from home for much of last year, people in the football-crazed city have had to make to with his cut-outs. The selfies have hardly ceased, though, due to such minor hurdles.
In Pune, Angriwal, who would praise the success of his wards such as Nikhil Kadam and Sukhdev Patil, who have both played in the I-League, today mentions Jadhav’s name when trying to motivate his students at Krida Prabodini.
“At the hostels, each student was given a cupboard,” he said. “I had asked everyone to write their dream on a piece of paper and stick on their cupboards. ‘I want to represent India in the World Cup,’ Aniket had written then.”
He added, “I did not pay much attention to it then. India in a World Cup was an improbable thought. But fate had a different script.”