Name: Thierry Daniel Henry
Nickname: Titou, Tezza, Titi
DOB: 17'th Aug '77
Nationality: France
Clubs: AS Monaco (1994-98), Juventus (1999), Arsenal (1999-2007), FC Barcelona (2007-10), New York Red Bulls (2010-Present).
Trivia:
> France (WC '98 + Euro'00 + Confederations Cup '03) - Top scorer for the Les Bleus on each occasion.
> Fifa World Player of the Year (Runner-up '03, '04)
> Monaco (Ligue1 '97 + French Super Cup '97)
> Arsenal (EPL '02, '04 + FA Cup '02, '03, '05 + Community Shield '02, '04)
> Barcelona (Champion's League '09 + La Liga '09, '10 + Copa del Rey '09 + Spanish Super Cup '09 + Uefa Super Cup '09 + Club WC '09)
> All time top goal scorer for both France (51) & Arsenal (226).
> The only football player to win the European Golden Boot for two successive seasons.
> The only footballer ever to have won a 'Sextuple' as well as claim to be an 'Invincible'!
> Social Causes: Stand Up Speak Up - Fight Against Racism, Unicef Ambassador, Fight Against Aids
> Sponsers: Nike, Reebok, Renault, Pepsi, Gillette
Favourite Quotes:
> "When you put on the shirt of France or Arsenal, you change. It's like a new skin. You become Superman."
> "I eat football, I sleep football, I breathe football. I'm not mad, I'm just passionate."
> "Sometimes in football you have to score goals."
"He is a Legend.. Ah.. Well.. Don't patronize him.. He is no Legend.. He is GOD.. Worship Him.."
PS: The following is a poem co-written by my friend Arup & your's truly, way back during the 2003-04 season. Hope you'll like it!
THIERRY - 'The Fierry'
Like in a galaxy of million star, He's the brightest known so far; He's changed the dimensions of the game, Guess what, Thierry Henry is his name!
When he runs a cheetah is left far behind, When he turns he may boggle up your mind; And when he delivers a free kick, Believe me, the goalkeeper feels sick!
Be it Arsenal or be it France, He will never give his opponents a chance; He flicks the ball to his teammate, And that's a goal, it's my bet!
The world lies beneath his two feet, When he plays you can feel the heat; If you wanna watch him at his peak, Do tune in to Premiership this week!
PPS: Can everyone please share their views on what they think of TH14? Please!?
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
The Phoenix called Indian Football
Oft referred to as cricket’s poor cousin, Indian football has had its shares of up’s & down’s through the decades. That said, the number of down’s hugely overshadow the meager amount of up’s. Infact we can count’em on fingers – Asian Cup triumphs in ’52, ’61, finishing 4’th at the Melbourne Olympics in ’56 & qualifying for the World Cup in ’50, being the only highlight’s of note.
Legend has it that we skipped the latter owing to unavailability of boots & other essentials, although that is far from the truth. Rather AIFF, the governing body for football in India, failed to understand the event’s importance. Lack of practice, selection issues & inadequate funds for travel to Brazil, were later cited as reasons for by-passing the showcase event.
Only God knows what could have been had we attended it & maybe caused an upset or two. We too could’ve had names to remember & gradually build upon them. But that was that. Hockey was the major force back then with India coming good time after the other. No less than 8 Olympic Gold’s were accumulated alongside. Advent of 70’s saw Cricket become a force with our team notching impressive away wins in the West Indies & England. But it was the 80’s when the paradigm shift ensued.
Not only did cable television found its way to our living-room’s but at almost the same time, Kapil’s Devil’s managed to record India’s maiden World Cup victory (Cricket). A new religion was born with the likes of Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Mohinder Amarnath etal given a demi-god statuses. The PK Banerjee’ & the Chunni Goswami’ of our world were long forgotten.
Cricket’s meteoric rise coupled with the glaring difference in playing standard’s between our & the other European leagues, now evident thanks to the cable network, made it almost impossible for football to catch up.
Cut to the noughties; whilst BCCI grew from strength to strength, AIFF languished with controversies galore. Be it selection issues, mis-management of funds, inadequate infrastructure, you name it; there were inconsistencies all over.
Coming to the domestic front, the progress of our own League has been tardy to say the least. Yes, we do have one! The National Football League, which was recently restructured and is now called the I-League. This seems to be an initiative in the right direction with aims to induce more professionalism. And with one eye on the future, each team is required to maintain an Under-19 development squad.
Yet in all regards, be in terms of quality, infrastructure or investment, we are light-years behind our peers from Europe. People are passionate about the regional clubs like East Bengal, Mohun Bagan, Churchill Brothers but it is primarily restricted to the locales these clubs hail from.
The dearth of proper training academies, world class infrastructure, corporate sponsorship’s and government backing has affected the progress at large. Our national team has failed to impress at the bigger stage and lies 138'th in the Fifa rankings. Imagine a billion people and a rank that poor. Even countries like Faroe Islands, Fiji, Luxembourg are ranked higher than us; there entire population being same as that of any South Delhi residential colony. Think of it.
The reason is simple- We haven’t given football the attention it deserved and hence have suffered both in terms of technical quality and physical prowess; which are the minimum pre-requisite’s in today’s competitive age.
The change required to overhaul the system needs to transpire at the very grass root level. The initiative needs to be a collaborative one, both from the Indian Football Federation and the top notch European clubs, who need to look beyond the potential market that we offer. Training academies set up with the mentorship of personnel from these big clubs can go a long way in changing the current scenario.
The respective govt. must also ensure swift & transparent transactions in order to acquire land, purchase of equipments as well as recruitment of training & coaching staff. It must also provide subsidies to performers & alternative careers in case of retirement. Industrial backing can come in the form of scholarships, grants & job guarantees. Likes of Tata Tea, LG & Samsung have already tied up with different English powerhouses wherein they send a batch (around 20) of teenagers for trials at the parent club. The entire cost incurred is borne by them. More such initiatives on a mass-scale needs to bear fruit.
Our present generation has grown with Baichung Bhutia – the ‘Sikkimese Sniper’, synonymous with everything that has to do with Indian football. No wonder he was the first to taste European football when he played for a brief stint with FC Bury, a 3rd division English side, way back in ’01. There have been stalwarts like I M Vijayan before him as well, who couldn’t make their mark on an international stage owing to general apathy towards the game. But things are changing now. Sunil Chhetri did India proud by first getting into MLS side Kansas Wizards, & then by defeating the footballing behemoths, Manchester United, in a friendly game earlier this month. Others like Subrata Paul & Gourmangi Singh too are on a watch-list of clubs from abroad. The gates are steadily but surely opening up.
We have produced quality players in the past, and no doubts why we can’t do that again. The talent is very much there, waiting to get nurtured and be in headed the right direction to produce the goods at the biggest stage, time after another. Just the other week two youngsters were selected by Nike in its global hunt, pitting them against 18 equally talented lads from world over.
The fervent passion with which today’s youth stays up way past midnight to see the Messi’, the Ronaldo’, the Toress’, the Fabregas’ & the Rooney’ of this world play for their clubs, indicates the change in trend. This is all the more prevalent with those in metro & urban centers. A sight of someone flashing his kitschy, bright club jersey is no more given a bland look, rather it is envied. Walk into any residential complex & you’ll find a horde of youngsters playing organized football; step-over’s, headers, slide-rules all included!
Here are few stats according to Nielsen Online Buzz Metrics, which might just surprise you:-
Let’s hope we, as a nation, get rid of the former notion & start taking the most widely played/viewed game, the ‘beautiful game’, seriously. A mere change in attitude is all that is needed. And once that happens, this phoenix, too, shall rise..
Legend has it that we skipped the latter owing to unavailability of boots & other essentials, although that is far from the truth. Rather AIFF, the governing body for football in India, failed to understand the event’s importance. Lack of practice, selection issues & inadequate funds for travel to Brazil, were later cited as reasons for by-passing the showcase event.
Only God knows what could have been had we attended it & maybe caused an upset or two. We too could’ve had names to remember & gradually build upon them. But that was that. Hockey was the major force back then with India coming good time after the other. No less than 8 Olympic Gold’s were accumulated alongside. Advent of 70’s saw Cricket become a force with our team notching impressive away wins in the West Indies & England. But it was the 80’s when the paradigm shift ensued.
Not only did cable television found its way to our living-room’s but at almost the same time, Kapil’s Devil’s managed to record India’s maiden World Cup victory (Cricket). A new religion was born with the likes of Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Mohinder Amarnath etal given a demi-god statuses. The PK Banerjee’ & the Chunni Goswami’ of our world were long forgotten.
Cricket’s meteoric rise coupled with the glaring difference in playing standard’s between our & the other European leagues, now evident thanks to the cable network, made it almost impossible for football to catch up.
Cut to the noughties; whilst BCCI grew from strength to strength, AIFF languished with controversies galore. Be it selection issues, mis-management of funds, inadequate infrastructure, you name it; there were inconsistencies all over.
Coming to the domestic front, the progress of our own League has been tardy to say the least. Yes, we do have one! The National Football League, which was recently restructured and is now called the I-League. This seems to be an initiative in the right direction with aims to induce more professionalism. And with one eye on the future, each team is required to maintain an Under-19 development squad.
Yet in all regards, be in terms of quality, infrastructure or investment, we are light-years behind our peers from Europe. People are passionate about the regional clubs like East Bengal, Mohun Bagan, Churchill Brothers but it is primarily restricted to the locales these clubs hail from.
The dearth of proper training academies, world class infrastructure, corporate sponsorship’s and government backing has affected the progress at large. Our national team has failed to impress at the bigger stage and lies 138'th in the Fifa rankings. Imagine a billion people and a rank that poor. Even countries like Faroe Islands, Fiji, Luxembourg are ranked higher than us; there entire population being same as that of any South Delhi residential colony. Think of it.
The reason is simple- We haven’t given football the attention it deserved and hence have suffered both in terms of technical quality and physical prowess; which are the minimum pre-requisite’s in today’s competitive age.
The change required to overhaul the system needs to transpire at the very grass root level. The initiative needs to be a collaborative one, both from the Indian Football Federation and the top notch European clubs, who need to look beyond the potential market that we offer. Training academies set up with the mentorship of personnel from these big clubs can go a long way in changing the current scenario.
The respective govt. must also ensure swift & transparent transactions in order to acquire land, purchase of equipments as well as recruitment of training & coaching staff. It must also provide subsidies to performers & alternative careers in case of retirement. Industrial backing can come in the form of scholarships, grants & job guarantees. Likes of Tata Tea, LG & Samsung have already tied up with different English powerhouses wherein they send a batch (around 20) of teenagers for trials at the parent club. The entire cost incurred is borne by them. More such initiatives on a mass-scale needs to bear fruit.
Our present generation has grown with Baichung Bhutia – the ‘Sikkimese Sniper’, synonymous with everything that has to do with Indian football. No wonder he was the first to taste European football when he played for a brief stint with FC Bury, a 3rd division English side, way back in ’01. There have been stalwarts like I M Vijayan before him as well, who couldn’t make their mark on an international stage owing to general apathy towards the game. But things are changing now. Sunil Chhetri did India proud by first getting into MLS side Kansas Wizards, & then by defeating the footballing behemoths, Manchester United, in a friendly game earlier this month. Others like Subrata Paul & Gourmangi Singh too are on a watch-list of clubs from abroad. The gates are steadily but surely opening up.
We have produced quality players in the past, and no doubts why we can’t do that again. The talent is very much there, waiting to get nurtured and be in headed the right direction to produce the goods at the biggest stage, time after another. Just the other week two youngsters were selected by Nike in its global hunt, pitting them against 18 equally talented lads from world over.
The fervent passion with which today’s youth stays up way past midnight to see the Messi’, the Ronaldo’, the Toress’, the Fabregas’ & the Rooney’ of this world play for their clubs, indicates the change in trend. This is all the more prevalent with those in metro & urban centers. A sight of someone flashing his kitschy, bright club jersey is no more given a bland look, rather it is envied. Walk into any residential complex & you’ll find a horde of youngsters playing organized football; step-over’s, headers, slide-rules all included!
Here are few stats according to Nielsen Online Buzz Metrics, which might just surprise you:-
- We Indians discuss Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney the most, followed by Lionel Messi.
- England is the most discussed team, followed by Brazil and Spain.
- Around 53 million Indians have watched the World Cup with the penetration being around 29 %.
- West Bengal is the most (football!) crazy state, with the highest viewership.
- With respect to advertising, the telecom companies took the top spot, followed by two wheelers, soft drinks, DTH service providers, lubricants, cars, television and spices.
- Both Waka Waka and Wavin’ Flag were among the Top-5 downloads for the year 2010 so far.
- On being asked ‘By when should India qualify for a World Cup’, the majority felt 2018 in when we’ll get to wave our tri-colours at the World Cup Finals. Amen to that.
Let’s hope we, as a nation, get rid of the former notion & start taking the most widely played/viewed game, the ‘beautiful game’, seriously. A mere change in attitude is all that is needed. And once that happens, this phoenix, too, shall rise..
About Football Fans India
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To re-ignite India's passion towards the 'beautiful game' called Football!
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