‘Start your own league’

Former Man Utd captain, Patrice Evra watches football play out on Mumbai streets

It's the early 90s. On the streets in Senegal are young boys, shabbily dressed, wholly engrossed in the world at their feet as they kick about a football. One of them, a striker, goes for goal and hits the ball hard. It veers off target. “Who broke the window?” thunders a voice. Fingers point to a 13-year-old in a family of 24 siblings. Bewildered, their father looks at the scrawny boy and laughs in disbelief: “Impossible!”

That boy went on to captain Manchester United and the French national Team. His name is Patrice Evra. “It was only years later, when he saw me play at Manchester, that he finally believed it was me,” reminisces Evra with a chuckle to a room full of children at Smile Foundation, Andheri. 

As they ask more questions, he patiently answers all of them. “They remind me of myself at that age,” Evra tells mid-day later, “I grew up like them; couldn’t even afford a bag for school.” His first contract at 17 took him out of the streets.

Patrice Evra

The Forward-turned-Left-Back has been in town for a few days, experiencing India in all its glory. “I’ve been to the slums,” he tells us, “Seen the Dhobi Ghat, cut coconuts to have nariyal pani, sat in a tuk-tuk and thoroughly enjoyed butter chicken.” Yet, the trip is not just for sight-seeing, it’s more than that—a personal endeavour, he confesses. One that he has had on his mind for a couple of years. 

It has two missions: The first to give back the love and support he’s received from his fans here. The second, curiosity about the scope for football in the country. 
“There’s immense potential,” he says, “Indian people are very athletic. I’ve seen professional kabaddi matches and the kind of physicality that the players have is precisely what’s required for the Premier League. I wish I could move like that.” 

He admits that he hasn’t seen a professional Indian football match, but he has seen children play on the streets. That’s where the heart of the game lies, he believe. Football has always been a sport of the poor. “There’s no need for a fancy academy to become the next [Cristiano] Ronaldo or Evra,” he says assuredly. “You need to dream, but also work towards it. You need resilience and the belief that God has a plan for you. It is easy to reach the top…staying there is when matters 
get complicated.” 

He recalls the time he felt most thrown off—it was after his debut match in the Premier League. He was subbed off after halftime and United coach, Sir Alex Ferguson, told him, “Sit next to me until you learn how to play.” Evra’s agent sidled up to him and apologised for working out the transfer. However, this only made the former Monaco player more resolute to make his mark. He put more hours at, the gym to compete with the physicality demanded by the English league, and focused on acclimatising. 

Another major change was his mindset. His philosophy—which he admits Sir Alex would be less than thrilled to hear—is offence is the best defence. “That helped me finally accept that I was a Defender,” he says, “I had always thought of myself as a Striker and was unwilling to fall back.” He smiles and adds, perhaps that’s why he was so good. The result of all these efforts was an exceptional run at the renowned club, winning five league titles among other achievements. 

Today, his mission is to give back, and a part of that is tied to the biggest democracy in the world. What India needs to do, according to him, is prioritise and invest. Give the sport more importance, and focus on cultivating and mentoring homegrown talent. “There’s no need to go out when you can start your own league,” Evra asserts. Besides, going abroad could be tough on Indian footballers due to the strong family bonds he’s noticed in the short span of time that he’s been here.

When asked whether he may look into investing in football here, he replies it’s a possibility… provided he can find individuals who share his values, and don’t want to set up an academy just for profit.

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