FOOTBALL WAS MY HEART and soul in college and school. And my playing position, or its disappearance, is proof of my age and how much the game has evolved. As the inside-right or right-in, I was expected to support the centre forward with my counterpart, the left-in. Now, that position has disappeared with the appearance of the second striker. This issue of your favourite newsmagazine is our FIFA World Cup special, and on cover is one of my favourite players from the current crop, Kylian Mbappe.
The cover article was written by Malayala Manorama Coordinating Editor Antony John. The food-and-football fan has been to seven FIFA World Cup tournaments since 1998; he skipped the vuvuzelas in South Africa (2010). He reported two—France (1998) and South Korea/Japan (2002)—and has been a pilgrim to Brazil (2014), Russia (2018) and Qatar (2022). He is leaving for the US and will watch matches at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, and the NRG Stadium in Houston.
Chief Subeditor Karthik Ravindranath writes about the dark horses and has picked Japan and Ecuador to do something magical, just as Morocco did in Qatar. Senior Subeditor Bechu S. looks at how football tactics do not disappear, but mutate. He picks Spain as a case study of how the famous tiki-taka has evolved into a faster and more vertical variant.
Football gives a healthier high, compared with other substances. Closer to home, Senior Assistant Editor Pratul Sharma looks at how the government’s focus is changing in Kashmir as militancy is receding and economic opportunities are growing. Narco-terror is in the crosshairs now. He interviewed Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, DGP Nalin Prabhat and Divisional Commissioner Anshul Garg for a layered conversation on the menace and the uphill battle of rehabilitation.
Senior Correspondent Shubhangi Shah opens @leisure with a mouthwatering spread on the lesser-known dishes of Uttar Pradesh, especially Rampuri cuisine. Interestingly, she looks at how caste and wealth shapes food, both the ingredients and the preservation of recipes.
Coming back to football, I always wanted to just play. The first time they held the selection trials at the Madras Christian College School, I was pulled out in the first five minutes. I kicked up a row with the coach, and he said that he had already picked me, so there was nothing more to prove. I did not want to prove anything, I just wanted to play!
My family also knows not to interrupt me while I’m watching a game, and that is something I will miss this time as the teams will take to the field at unearthly hours.
At the golden jubilee of my school batch, my classmates told Bina that I was the “Beckham of the batch”, but a selfish one at that. “He would dribble and never pass,” they complained to her. If matches were decided on ball possession, I would have been voted MVP, you see. But, sadly, they count the goals. Unfair, right?
Antony writes this about Mbappe: “His weakness, as per 1998 World Cup winner Frank Leboeuf, is that he is ‘too selfish in his thoughts’.” Perhaps, my classmates should have called me the Mbappe of my batch.
