Chopra wants to be the Sachin Tendulkar of Indian football

Finally it’s happened. Michael Chopra, journeyman striker, will give up British citizenship to play for India. For someone who nursed ambitions to represent England this has been quite the journey of ups and downs. At his most nascent, Chopra was touted as the “whizkid who would partner Wayne Rooney up front in the 2010 World Cup”. It was Zesh Rehman, a footballer of Pakistani origin to administer a reality check after Chopra was passed over for national team selection in favour of David Nugent despite a standout Championship career on loan from Newcastle. India came calling in 2010 and this time Chopra was ready but the government’s intractability on dual citizenship nipped that in the bud.

Now, at 30, that is all in the past, a new generation wears the colours of the Three Lions. The Newcastle striker was always on the Premier League bubble never quite breaking through, earning a solid reputation a rung below, in the Championship with highlight seasons at Watford, Barnsley, and Cardiff City. That career unraveled, last released from Blackpool in June after his Twitter lambasting the club caused a falling out. A long battle against a gambling addiction also took a toll on personal finances and his marriage. It’s fair to say India gives him a fresh start. Chopra, boosted by the admirable sentiment or incredible bravado, take your pick – to make Indian youth look up to him as the Sachin Tendulkar of football, may still be full of goals. For the short term. But as they say a swallow does not a summer make.

India is described ad nauseum as “a sleeping giant” in this sport which should raise suspicion. The question is for whom is it a sleeping giant? As a market, to sell more jerseys and merchandise, to sell more EPL TV subscriptions, to give former stars a comfortable send off, and provide employment to 3rd and 4th tier international players? Simply introducing an annual three month super league does not translate into improvement on the pitch. For all the talk of a “trickle down”, we can point to the Premier League hindering the progress of the English national side.

At the other end, Baichung Bhutia in contemporary times still remains the only Indian footballer to spend a charitable amount of time in an overseas major league. That was more than a decade ago. Before him Mohammed Salim, 60 years ago at Celtic, another era altogether. Cricket has a compelling story line, we’re taking it to our former colonial masters and leaving with the keys. Football has to find that lever. India needs a sustainable vision and a willingness to ease restrictions on ethnic talent from the diaspora as part of the model to develop Indian football and lift it out of the doldrums.

An example would be Yan Dhanda, at 15, modeling himself as the next Phillipe Coutinho at the Liverpool Academy. Similarly, there are quite a few others out there. Perhaps, a sense of nation building and practical considerations might be the frame to work on in switching their allegiance. After all, a damning Asians in Football Forum report in 2005, states, “such football professionals like Chopra and Rehman represent a novelty value as they are just token Asian players wheeled out to demonstrate progress.” Diasporic Indians like many ethnic Algerians footballers born and trained in France opting to play for the Fennecs, might want to do the same with their country of origin.