Second chance saloon

It has been a tough week for Robert Royte, the owner of Aizawl FC. The build-up to the league title and microscopic focus on the team and himself have been building through the week. For a man who has seldom been in such limelight despite all the good work he has done for Mizoram football and resurrecting Aizawl FC, it was a stamp of validation.

There were some heart in the mouth moment on the final day too. In retrospect, no one would have wanted it any other way.

Shillong Lajong had given a right go at ruining the Aizawl party, as they should, even hitting the post in the dying minutes. But at the end, it was Aizawl's day.

It was, as they say, written in the stars.

As Royte’s mood shifted to that of pure euphoria, the owner of the I-League champions remembered the promise made six months ago. In the back of his mind, amidst all the melee, he knew he had delivered.

“I had promised AIFF that if they allow Aizawl to come back, we will come back stronger. On my part, I have fulfilled my promise,” he said as much to himself as to others.

Yes, what Aizawl has achieved will probably go down as one of the biggest success stories in Indian sport. Maybe even in world sport. A freakish tale that has little to no likelihood of ever happening again but will have the fans yearning for it nonetheless.

A fairy tale though it may seem on the face of it, Aizawl’s story goes beyond that. Beneath the surface, it’s one of second chances.  An island of misfit, nay misused, toys who made football lore.

It all started back in 2011 when Royte and Co. decided to revive the club following 13 years of dormancy. Breath new life into the side. They got promoted into the top division and in the 2015-16 I-League, their first ever, only to be relegated on a technicality as bottom team DSK Shivajians were immune from relegation under the corporate entry rule.

But their show in the Federation Cup where they reached the final showed glimpses of what this team could be. At least for those who wanted to see.

“Protesting with their performance” was how the then coach Jahar Das, who has since moved back to his favoured youth development post at the club, called it.

While initially the protest fell on deaf years, the Goan clubs pulling out was the catalyst. A second chance for the team from Aizawl to show what they can do with their shoe-string budget, hardcore fan base and local talent that may well be the best across the country.

But first they needed to get the basics right. Out came the think tank.

“Aizawl's performance and the reason for their relegation was mainly inexperience. The players and coach,” Royte revealed. “Knowing that fact, we decided to hire someone who has experience behind him. We wanted to use the experience to be among the top four club in the league, which was our target.”

Enter Khalid Jamil.

“I said only one thing to them at half time — you will not get another 45 minutes. This is the last. Go out and put in a last extra effort, together. If you think about this, you can do it.” Those words spoken by Jamil 45 minutes before winning the title will go down as the most important half time talk in Aizawl history.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves here.

As fate would have it, the Kuwait-born former Indian international was unattached when Aizawl came calling. Mumbai FC, had just severed a seven-year relationship with the coach, citing their ambitions to be among the top sides rather than in the relegation scrap. Jamil, they felt, lacked the ambition.

Ah. the irony…

It was a tough decision for Jamil who had spent his entire career in Mumbai. An opportunity to kickstart a career that began with much promise only to be limited by the financial muscle and management of the club.

The man of deep faith then decided to take a leap of faith.

“After leaving Mumbai FC, I was desperate for a job,” came the simple answer when asked about the decision. “I was scared because I had to do well. There was nothing familiar to me. I didn’t know the players, the city. Aizawl was completely outside my comfort zone.”

With 18 days to go for the kickoff, the manager, a family man through and through, was on board.

While as shocking as the culture was for Jamil, on the pitch and within the club there were similarities to which he could hold on; Few things in the know amidst all that was alien.

Both teams struggled with finances and had to rely on the youngsters while making bargain signings. Jamil, all too familiar with the scenario, set about his work.

“When I came to the team it was majorly comprised of local talent who had the flair but the team needed experience and a little more diversity,” he revealed.

An astute player manager, for all the ignominy he receives from rival fans, the 40-year-old knew how to instill his sense of no-nonsense football as the base for the talented local lads to turn on the style.

For that he needed his trusted stalwarts. Someone on the inside who can be the eyes and ears on the field. In came Ashutosh Mehta and Jayesh Rane.

“Jayesh and Ashutosh had played with me previously. So they could add experience and also help the team in understanding my methods,” Jamil reasoned.

In fairness, the duo needed a new lease of life to their careers as well.

“I didn’t have a very good season with Chennaiyin FC in the Indian Super League last season. So the most important thing for me was to get playing time in the I-League and Khalid guaranteed that,” revealed Rane.

Mehta was also in the same boat.

“There is a connection between the three of us since we have worked together for almost a decade now. I know what he wants  from me and Jayesh. I just had one condition, if I move, I move with Jayesh, and Jayesh too thought on similar lines. So, it wasn’t a difficult decision to make,” he remarked. “We were aware of the difficulties we would face moving to Aizawl. The weather, food, culture, lifestyle it was all different because we have lived all our lives in Mumbai. The coach was the only reason for the move. He was the one who had given me a chance and all these years he has shown a lot of faith in me,” he added.

It was time to reciprocate the same.

With his lieutenants back at this side, Jamil needed his marquee man. Someone who had a point to prove. And in Mahmoud Al-Amnah, he found the one.

The midfielder, capped 81 times for Syria, had gone under the radar during his time with Sporting Clube de Goa last season. With the Goan club no longer in the I-League, Jamil jumped at the chance, speaking to him in Arabic and convincing him to swap the sun and the beaches for the more moody and green state and even take a pay cut.

It wasn’t an easy task. But for Jamil, the presence of the 34-year-old, who has left the war-torn Syria for Egypt, it needed to be done for the team to take shape.

“We got Amnah specifically to add to the experience in the midfield alongside team captain Alfred Jaryan. This was the large viewpoint and to our advantage things have worked out pretty fine,” he stressed.

Others followed suit. In came 23-year-old goalkeeper Albino Gomes, ever the second fiddle in Mumbai City FC, seeking regular football, striker Bayi Kamo Stephene, from the Goan league fame, and an unknown quantity in defender Kingsley Obumneme.

Hardly world beaters on the first glance but all with a point to prove.

“Khalid knew the players and had an idea," revealed last season’s head coach Jahar Das. “He brought with him two players from Mumbai. A goalkeeper and the foreigners. Players in positions we were lacking last season. He also motivated the Mizo players as well which helped them reach their high potential."

This curious blend of old and new went through the season unbeaten at home with eight wins and a draw. Cheered on by their fanatic supporters, the team that played commendably but always conceded last season, evolved into a stoic side that built from the back and attacked with typical flair.

They scored just enough, but decisively, while conceding rarely (just 14) as Jamil’s influence took hold. Most importantly for the team, Rane evolved from a winger to a center midfielder, partnering yet another attacker convert in Jaryan, as the duo learned the defensive know-how, selflessly providing the attackers, specifically Amnah, the platform to go and do the damage. Others rallied alongside, doing their duties with due diligence.

Jamil, himself once an outcast, had turned the script on his head. “One game at a time” became the mantra. Amna, Mehta, Rane and Jaryan became household names. Bayi Kamo a fearsome hitman. Gomes in line for the best keeper of the year.

As for those who came through the ranks, Lalramchullova, Lalruatthara, Laldanmawia R and Brandon Vanlalremdika among others are now knocking on the national team doors.

A champion team with no players ever having been part of another champion side. A team taking the same emotional journey with no one with wiser about the next turn or trap as they shattered one glass ceiling after another, driven by a coach who cajoled performances, one after another, with remarkable and hitherto unseen consistency from his men.

Yes, it's a fairy tale for the ages. Yes, it is a sharp alarm bell for all who believe that money is key to success. Yes, it is a testament to the unpredictability of sport. It is all that and more. But perhaps, at its purest, Aizawl’s story is one of renaissance and resilience.

After all, it is fitting that a club that got a second chance bestowed the same for the others. That, is poetic justice.