The Aizawl Story – Those who Dared to Dream

Written by Debojyoti Chakraborty on May 10, 2018

It takes great effort to outwit some of the superpowers in the country to clinch the league title. It takes a little more effort if no team from your region has done it so far. And it takes more than a little more effort if the team was in relegation zone last season. This is how incredible this story is. This is the story of Aizawl FC, our Black Swan from Neo-Indian football by Debojyoti Chakraborty at Goalden Times.

Humble Beginnings

The sleeping giant of World Football – this is how India is known or hailed, or projected, or marketed, whatever suits the propagator’s agenda! But the problems at the country’s grass root level remained unnoticed for years. One of the major problems was failure of the authorities to popularize football across the country. Unless and until a sport is injected in every pocket of the country, the sport cannot grow at a national level. Unfortunately, football frenzies were traditionally confined to the states of West Bengal, Punjab and Goa. All that changed in the 1990s. A skinny boy from Sikkim, one of the most deprived states of India, made the whole nation sit up and take notice of him. The boy, Bhaichung Bhutia, went on to become the most iconic footballer of modern Indian football and with him started the renaissance of Indian football.

Inspired by Bhutia, a whole lot of youngsters from the north-eastern states started trying their luck in football. By the dawn of the new millennium, quite a few of them were donning the national team’s jersey. With growing enthusiasm about football in the region, government and private initiatives focussed on the development of footballing infrastructure. Youth development programs were launched and new clubs were formed. One of these clubs were Aizawl FC from the picturesque state of Mizoram.

Though they were founded in 1984, their involved was restricted to mostly amateurish levels for the next three decades. In 2012, they became a professional club and participated in the second division of I-League, the Indian national football league. After some mediocre performances, there was a turn of fortune in 2015 as they won the second division. Top tier though still proved to be too much for them. Aizawl had a disastrous start to the campaign, lost four games in a row, got a new manager and finally finished in the penultimate place among nine teams in the 2015-16 season. They were getting ready to play again in the second division come next season. But meanwhile Salgaocar and Sporting Club de Goa from the I-League decided to shut shops. All India Football Federation (AIFF), the governing body of football in India, decided to give Aizawl FC another chance in the top tier in order to have participation from every corner of the country ^[1].  Thus the Reds from Mizoram were reinstated in the I-League for 2016-17 season.

Preparation Time

2015-16 was not an outright disaster though. It was a good opportunity for Aizawl FC’s youngsters playing in the top tier for the first time. Their nervousness got the better of them in I-League but the same troop did make it to the finals of the Federation Cup, the premier cup competition of India. En route they beat the mighty and recently crowned I-League champions Bengaluru FC, both at home and away. So the season had actually ended with some solid performances and a big slice of luck for the north-eastern team.

The club administrators realized their team was not up to the mark and needed to bolster the squad in every department to remain relevant in the national scene. So Indian Super League (ISL) club Mumbai city was raided for shot stopper Albino Gomes and right back Ashutosh Mehta. Also in came  the local centre back Zohmingliana Ralte from fellow struggling side DSK Shivajians to add meat to the defensive line. Syrian attacking midfielder Mahmoud Amnah, an experienced international player with 78 caps who did not want to move back to his war torn country, was added to the team from Sporting Club de Goa. To lead the attack, Kamo Stephane Bayi was bought in from Salgaocar Sporting Club and Jayesh Rane, on loan from another ISL club Chennaiyin FC, was drafted to augment him. All of these players formed the core of the team and Aizawl was a renewed team ready for the next season.

Silver Lining

That season started on the first weekend of January, 2017, against the mighty East Bengal, at their own backyard. East Bengal was riding high on the back of a triumphant local league (Calcutta Football League, commonly known as CFL) campaign. Nobody gave Aizawl a chance and it was a almost by a stroke of luck that saw the team from the mountains take a surprise lead in the first half injury time courtesy of an own goal by Gurwinder Singh. An unlikely victory was on the cards. But there was similar drama in the closing minutes of the second half as East Bengal grabbed an equaliser. Nonetheless, with a point away from home against one of the league favourites coach Khalid Jamil was not complaining. After a shambolic performance last time round, survival was the key concern at that point.

Aizawl had couple of home matches to follow against not so formidable opponents. These matches turned out to be really close encounters and Aizawl eventually won both these matches, one through an injury time winner and the other after holding on to a narrow lead for the concluding minutes of the match. Elsewhere Bengaluru FC, East Bengal and Mohun Bagan were setting the stage on fire demolishing every team en route.

The team from north-east made the headlines in their 4^th round match. It was a match in Mumbai, against Mumbai FC, coach Jamil’s previous employers. Jamil had a score to settle, and his boys duly obliged earning a hard fought 1-0 victory. It was the time when people started to take them seriously. But just then they suffered a shock defeat to Chennai FC, a team languishing near the bottom of the table. A massive chance was lost as teams at the top barring East Bengal had all dropped points in that round. Aizawl could have been in a great position had they seized the opportunity. Jamil had little time to turn around as the next match was only four days away. He did a good job though, as his team bounced back to beat DSK Shivajians 1-0 at home. But there was a sentiment going around that Aizawl would continue to have an up-and-down season. Aizawl had a perfect occasion to silence their naysayers in their next match.

Next match was against Mohun Bagan, a team high on confidence having beaten Bengaluru FC in their last round and dropping only two points in the league so far. But it was Aizawl’s third match in the span of eight days. After having played a match in the farthest south of the country, they had to travel back to the north east border and now they had a match in the eastern coast. And we are talking here about a country as big as India! Travelling did take a toll on their performance as Aizawl conceded in the second minute of the match. It was as if they were still getting warmed up and found themselves trailing behind. Jayesh Rane though brought parity back minutes before the half time and both teams went into the interval locked at 1-1. Jeje Lelpekhula, hailing from Mizoram and one of the brightest young footballers of the country, scored just after the hour mark. The Mizo supporters did not know how to react. He was one of the favourite sons of the soil, but had scored against their beloved team! Soon the score was level once again but Darryl Duffy, who had scored the opener, netted the winner for Mohun Bagan in the 84^th minute. Aizawl had played a hard fought match but had nothing to show for their efforts. They found themselves with a paltry 13 points after seven matches.

But there were some silver lining. Aizawl had played two of the toughest teams of the league – East Bengal and Mohun Bagan – away from home and had not looked out of place at all. Bengaluru FC were showing signs of a dreaded campaign and had lost too much ground by now. So when the two teams from the Bay of Bengal cancelled each other out with a goalless draw and Aizawl came out victorious against Churchill Brothers., They were sitting pretty at the third spot only four points adrift the leaders. Next up was a misfiring Bengaluru FC – a fixture which looked very much winnable at home.

That was not to be though. Jamil’s team squandered a 1-0 lead and left the match with only a draw. But this was a season full of drama. Elsewhere East Bengal and Mohun Bagan too failed to win their matches allowing Aizawl to be at touching distance. This is exactly what Aizawl needed. They were playing five home matches at a stretch and they made the most of it by winning all of them barring this blip. Even the league leaders East Bengal were not spared in this period. So at the end of 12 rounds, Aizawl found themselves sandwiched between East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, each team separated by one point. A fascinating last leg of matches were to come.

The Travelogue

Jamil sensed difficult times were ahead. They had played all but one of their home matches. Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, Aizawl seemed like a fortress where a crowd of 20,000 would shout their lungs out for their beloved team and that really seemed like the twelfth man for Aizawl on the pitch. Now that was over, Aizawl was on a road trip for around 40 days in which they had to play four matches.

The journey started well with a win over DSK Shivajians. Results elsewhere were also in their favour as East Bengal suffered a shock loss at home against Churchill Brothers and Mohun Bagan scrapped to a 2-2 draw, also at home, against Mumbai FC. It seemed destiny was on their side! Two mighty giants from the East had slipped at home. Aizawl found themselves on top of the table. For the first time ever!

But they floundered. The pressure of being at the top grew big on them and they could rack up only a single point from their next couple of matches. First they surrendered a two goal advantage against struggling Minerva Punjab FC with barely half an hour to go. Then they succumbed to an injury time goal against an out of form Bengaluru FC.

The only thing keeping Aizawl alive in the league was indifferent form of their rivals. East Bengal lost three in a row including the highly venomous local derby against Mohun Bagan. Mohun Bagan lost their focus while juggling between the I-League and AFC Cup. So with three matches to go, Aizawl were still tied with Mohun Bagan at the top.

The Final Countdown

Jamil went for it. This was his last chance and he was not willing to give up without a fight. In their last away match of this stretch, they matched Mohun Bagan’s win and were ready for a face off at their own backyard.

The match against Mohun Bagan was a sell-out. It was a match they had to win. At a venue where they had dropped only two points thus far. But Jamil knew his team cannot afford that. This was the moment. And they had to seize it.

The match was a drab affair. Everyone was tensed and that affected the quality of the match. Flurry of mispasses and long range efforts dictated much of the proceedings. Then in the 83^rd minute local boy Ralte scored the winner and sent the fans into frenzy. The league was within sight.

Aizawl went into the last match three points clear at the top. The championship was theirs to lose. But it was not an easy match, a north-east derby against Shillong Lajong FC. 23,700 anxious fans gathered to witness history unfold in front of their eyes. And the Reds from Mizoram made the worst possible start to the match. Cameroonian striker Asier Dipanda, top scorer of the league, scored his eleventh in the ninth minute. A huge section of the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium was filled up by travelling fans from Mizoram. They had flanked in with drums, vuvuzelas, banners and what-not to shout their lungs out for a memorable day. They were numb. But they found their voice at the half hour mark. News came in that Mohun Bagan were also trailing by a goal against Chennai City FC at home. If Aizawl had lost and Mohun Bagan had won, Aizawl would have been left stranded, cruelly on goal difference. But as things stood now, the travelling fans in Shillong could not help but celebrate. The team from Bengal though did not give up and a strike right at the half time whistle made the scoreline read 1-1 in Kolkata.

It was a mood swing in Shillong by now. Grim faces replaced the section of jubilant fans. Shaky looks and sweaty palms prayed, prayed, and prayed. During half-time, Jamil focussed on being calm, “… you won’t get another such 45 minutes in your life. We knew we were 45 minutes away from being the Champions. We had to be extra special in the second half.” ^[2] But deep inside, Jamil knew that he himself had to be the catalyst for bringing in that “extra special”. To get that all important goal, he introduced a young 21 year old local striker named William Lalnunfela. Lalnunfela had not been on the pitch for more than four minutes in a match after his poor showing in the sixth round. It was too much for him to turn the tides. And the nervousness started to show when he got involved in a brawl and was rightly shown a yellow card in the 62^nd minute. Then came the Bollywood moment! In the 67^th minute, Lalnunfela rose to the occasion and scored an all-important equaliser. The away fans once again started to live their dream amidst anxiety. Will it be a heartbreak? Will it be a story of so close yet so far? And the mood turned upside down when Darryl Duffy, Aizawl’s nemesis in their away match, scored in the 77^th minute to give the Mariners (Mohun Bagan) a 2-1 lead. Any slip up from Aizawl would cost them the league.

I-League Table 2016-17

The Miracle

But that was not to be. There was no more drama. Final whistle blew and a club from the tiny state of Mizoram were crowned the champions of India. It was huge. To win the I-League – the league which they should not be playing after getting relegated the last season. To win the league from a state that lacked development. To win a league for a region that does not have national level connectivity by rail even after seventy years of independence. It was huge.

The fans at the stadium were having the day of their lives. The celebrations were a sight to behold. But when the madness calmed down, it was another sight – actually a more significant one – to behold. All the travelling fans were cleaning the mess in the gallery before they bid adieu to their host stadium. It was a testimony to the simplicity and humbleness which characterise the people from north-east.

Aizawl FC fans clean up the Shillong Lajong stadium after their team won the I-League ^[3]

If we look back, we will see there are quite a few reasons for Aizawl’s success. Rome was not built in a day. Neither was Aizawl FC. They have reaped the fruits of their impressive youth development structure, orchestrated by coach Jahar Das for years. Advantage of this kind of setup is that all the young players grow up together playing alongside each other, knowing their own game well enough to complement each other. Add to that the fearlessness owing to the kind of hardship they have to go through in everyday life and the exuberance of youth. You will have a decent team at your disposal.

The emphasis, not only of Aizawl FC but the whole Mizoram Football Association, has been at the right place – nurturing talent at the grass root level. The club has more than 70 grassroots centres across Mizoram, each of the eight districts have pro-active district football associations running their own district leagues. Not only that, the state already has as many as seventeen young lads studying in Germany, learning from the very best. ^[4]

Together we win

But when the local players fail to make the cut, external reinforcements become necessary. And that is where Aizawl excelled. All of their acquisitions – Gomes, Mehta, Ralte, Amnah, Rane, Bayi – had been instrumental. It looked Aizawl was playing with a new identity that season. The club could not go after big names due to their shoestring budget. Their entire transfer kitty was comparable to one or two of the big name signings of their rival clubs. But that did not stop them from doing proper research and come up with a realistic shopping list. They did not go for spent forces and  old horses. Instead they stayed true to their identity and banked on youth. Bayi, for example, was only 20 years old and went on to become their leading scorer. All of their buys had already been exposed to the Indian domestic circuit. This was critical, especially in a league running for only four months. There was no breathing space and time for acclimatization. So, Aizawl refrained from taking a gamble and bringing in some completely new player to their foray.

And how the players complimented each other! In spite of being the league champions, neither collectively nor individually, did any one of them top the charts. Bayi was their leading goal scorer with five goals, but finished seventh highest in the league overall. Aizawl had scored 24 goals in the league but only four clubs managed to score less than them. However, those 24 – three of them being gifts from opponents in the form of own goals – were shared between as many as eleven players. They had a decent defensive record, only Mohun Bagan conceded less than them in the league. But Aizawl had a goal difference of +10, bettered by all of their main rivals – East Bengal, Mohun Bagan and Bengaluru FC. If anything, a parallel can be drawn with Atletico Madrid’s La Liga winning season of 2013-14 – which was again based on counter attacking opportunist football – when they trumped Spanish superpowers like Real Madrid and Barcelona. Aizawl actually won the league by winning the crucial moments – they won the most number of matches in the league. Buoyed by their vociferous fans, they had made their home a fortress where a mere two points were dropped from nine matches.

The Dream Merchant

Having said all this, a team cannot function without a proper leader. And the leader of this incredible team was one silent man who marshalled his troop like no other could – Khalid Jamil.  Jamil was a long term servant of Mumbai FC, both as a player as well as a coach. But he was strangely sacked at the end of 2015-16 season. More than the pink slip, what shattered Jamil more was allegations over his unprofessional association with Bengaluru FC while still being in charge of the Mumbai club. It took a while for the young man, who has always been praised for his disciplinarian approach, to come out of the shock. But once he got the opportunity with the Mizo club, Jamil did not look back.

Jamil stuck to his comfort level and went for players to fit into his 4-2-1-3 system. His influence on couple of Mumbaikars – Mehta and Rane – was instrumental in bringing them to the northeast. Jamil kept things simple. Jamil’s Mumbai FC were always defensively sound, and that’s what he brought to Aizawl – organisation. By making the team’s defence compact, the attacking players did not need to think much about their defensive contributions and instead could express themselves going forward. Besides, Aizawl were vulnerable to counterattack in previous campaign, Jamal ensured those mistakes would not be repeated this time round.

But Jamil had to rearrange his troops a little. Aizawl suffered last season from having too many wingers. All of their attacks were one dimensional – wingers running by the touchline, attempting hopeful crosses and lone striker trying in vain to latch onto those. Jamil converted Liberian striker Alfred Jaryan to a deep lying playmaker. But he also recognised the value Jaryan could bring to the team and the need to keep him in good mood. Jamil handed him over the captaincy as a vote of confidence towards him. Along with Jaryan, he slotted his own protégé from Mumbai FC Jayesh Rane, originally a winger or striker, in central midfield. Both of them formed a strong foundation stringing passes in the midfield which in turn allowed Al-Amna the freedom to move further up the pitch. More scoring avenues opened up keeping the opponents guessing Aizawl FC’s next attacking move.

He had a solid base to work upon – a new bunch of players, familiar with the Indian football and eager to prove themselves. Jamil, by his own admission, aimed for a top five finish only ^[4]. He banked on hard work, team spirit and a simple tactics – play to win the game. This was in direct contrast to his detractors who labelled him as a defensive coach. Sure, he tweaked his game plan here and there to match his opponents but overall, he did not have to change much throughout the season as his team kept on delivering.

Jamil had a small squad to fall upon but he ensured that lack of players is made up by abundance of team spirit. Whenever he asked for that extra, his team responded. Fitness level of the lads from the hills was exemplary. They could look for energy in their reserves and that’s why Aizawl were able to beat both Kolkata giants East Bengal and Mohun Bagan at home with crucial second-half goals.

Khalid Jamil was brought in to give stability to Aizawl FC. He had done wonders at Mumbai FC working with paltry budgets, saving them from relegation year after year. It was a similar backdrop at the Mizo club and everyone would have been happy had Jamil been able to finish at a respectable position with Aizawl FC. As fate would have it, the same year in which Jamil was crowned the best coach for winning the league, Mumbai FC got relegated.

The Mass

So what lies ahead of the reigning Indian champions? Obscurity. Yes, you read it right. Forget about the poaching that every financially weaker clubs like Aizawl FC faces. Khalid Jamil has already joined East Bengal and many of their star players will not be playing for them this season. But that’s not the point. Aizawl probably, rather surely, would have known that it will be difficult to retain their entire squad. And they would have known how difficult it would be retain their title. But at least they could have done a Leicester! Alas, AIFF does not bother to give them their fair share of chance.

The future of India’s existing club football is at the crossroads. The wealthy owners of the ISL have prescribed a roadmap for Indian football where their eight franchises are projected as the only relevant clubs of the country. The I-League will most likely cease to exist or will become totally irrelevant in the national scene. Whether it will do any good to Indian football might be a question of debate. But one thing is for sure that small teams like Aizawl FC would no longer be able to make it to the top of the Indian football. That too after showing the country what can be done with limited budget. Proving to everyone what heights can be scaled even without spending big and without any backing, just through a simple sustainable youth development model.

AIFF has not come out with a strong statement yet to clear the air of uncertainty. And that has been disappointing. This is utterly ridiculous. Nowhere in the world is a national league champion club deprived of the opportunity to play in the top division. Welcome to Indian football, my friends! Aizawl might have done what no Indian football club will ever get a chance to do. The chance to dream.

References

[1]http://www.goal.com/en-india/news/1064/i-league/2016/09/26/27901932/indian-football-aizawl-fc-reinstated-in-the-i-league

[2]https://www.thequint.com/football/2017/05/02/khalid-jamil-backstory-aizawl-fc-coach

[3]http://www.hindustantimes.com/football/after-i-league-win-aizawl-fc-fans-clean-up-shillong-stadium-win-hearts/story-cSePqIn4Nim6uhM42gPQRI.html

[4]https://www.mansworldindia.com/sports/aizawl-fc-story-underdogs-overlords/

About Debojyoti Chakraborty

Debojyoti Chakraborty is a follower of English Premier League and European football. You can reach him at debojyoti.chakraborty@gmail.com

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