The upcoming FIFA World Cup 2022 is going to be one like no other. There’s nothing ordinary about it. It’s the first time that an Arab country — Qatar — will host the biggest sporting event in the world. Of course, that’s come at a reported cost of an unimaginable $220 billion. The tournament will be held from November 20 to December 18 across eight state-of-the-art stadiums and the entire country is gearing up to showcase its luxury. Hamad International Airport in Doha is ready to be one of the busiest airports, expected to have a steady in-flow of visitors with over 1300 flights a day.

At some point, after the years of brouhaha about the first World Cup to be held in the winter relents, football will have to take centre stage. And we’re in for a treat. The world has been through a lot since the last FIFA World Cup in Russia. We’ve survived the lockdowns caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Oh yes, Russia has gone to war with Ukraine, Donald Trump is no longer president of USA, Roger Federer retired from tennis and Rafael Nadal became the first man to win 22 Gram Slam titles. Lest we forget, Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest on the field, mulled retirement and then made a return to the highest level of football.

So yes, this World Cup is bound to be different, because the world as we know it, is different. What will remain the same is the passion on the field at this quadrennial extravaganza.

The Teenager Today takes a look at the top five youngsters who can light up the field in their respective countries’ quest to win the coveted trophy.

Phil Foden

Position: Attacking midfielder
Age: 22
Country: England

England are not Manchester City. But two-thirds of the City forward line when they beat their city rivals Manchester United 6-3 were English — Foden on the right with Jack Grealish on the left. Though prolific forward Erling Haaland is Norwegian, in Harry Kane, England have a world-class centre-forward, too. Foden is a generational talent. Coach Pep Guardiola picked up on that soon after arriving at City and he has carefully nurtured Foden. England, too, have always promoted Foden.

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It’s that summer again. The summer that comes once every four years with the hottest of fevers. A rather enjoyable one though. The FOOTBALL fever which culminates at the final of the FIFA World Cup. For the month-long tournament it’s fanfare, parties, eccentricity and often a case of heartbreak, too.

While winning the trophy is difficult enough, retaining it is the real challenge. From its inception in 1930, only two countries (Italy and Brazil), have managed to retain the World Cup. Super-power Germany are in pole position to become the first team in 60 years to successfully defend the trophy, but it’s not going to be an easy ride, to say the least. The other 31 teams won’t go to Russia to just fill in the numbers. For the underdogs, and there are only a few, the thrill of causing an upset is motivation enough.

The reigning champions qualified in style, winning all 10 of their games, scoring 43 goals and conceding only 4. Their golden generation is ageing but remains a force and has been enhanced by young blood. Remember, they won the Confederations Cup with their ‘B’ team while others had their full-strength squads.

The only setback for them seems to be the injury of two of coach Joachim Loew’s trusted lieutenants — goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and defender Jerome Boateng. Neuer hasn’t played for six months with a foot injury while Boateng is in an even bleaker situation having injured his knee in the semi-finals of the Champions League against Real Madrid. Both their inclusions will most likely be last-minute, but it is imperative they recover if Germany want to repeat their 2014 feat.

This World Cup will see the absence of some big names. Italy, the winner of the 2006 edition, failed to make it to the finals after a disastrous campaign which ended with the firing of coach Gian Ventura. Ever since Luis Suarez bit Giorgio Chiellini at Brazil 2014 and then coach Antonio Conte’s resignation, their fortunes have tumbled.

Another big miss will be The Netherlands who lost to Spain in the 2010 finals, but more importantly exacted revenge by beating them 5-1 in 2014. Chile, the current Copa America champions, too failed to make it to the competition after finishing sixth in the South American group.

After appearing at every World Cup since 1990, USA failed to make it following a dire 1-2 defeat to a poor Trinidad and Tobago side in their final qualifier when a win or even a draw would have done.

There’s one team that made it through by the skin of their teeth — Argentina. A nervy qualification campaign saw one of world football’s great powers book their place at the last opportunity with victory over Ecuador, but the losing finalists in 2014 will be looking to go one better. It will be a farewell party for many senior players. Sergio Romero, Angel Di María, Sergio Aguero, Gonzalo Higuaín, Lucas Biglia and Ever Banega, among others, are almost certainly about to play in their final tournament. For Lionel Messi — the captain and main reason they reached Russia — it is also pretty much a case of now or never.

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When 17-year-old Jemimah Rodrigues, representing Mumbai in the U-19 West Zone inter-zonal One Day against Saurashtra slammed an unbeaten 163-ball 202 in November last year, she probably knew that the India Cap was coming sooner rather than later.

For years, women’s cricket suffered from the lack of new faces. There’s always been veteran batswoman Mithali Raj, pacer Jhulan Goswami and then there’s T20 skipper Hermanpreet Kaur. While they’re great players, sport, in order to thrive, needs new players (re: characters).

Simply put, Jemimah isn’t eccentric or flamboyant. She isn’t your normal 17-year-old Bandra (Mumbai) girl either. She comes across as timid, but that’s without a bat in her hand. She’s a nightmare to bowlers and a bore to wicketkeepers (because she seldom misses a shot).

Jemimah debuted for India against South Africa in February this year, and though she didn’t have an overtly great series, the selectors knew that their choice was going to reap huge benefits in the long run. And they didn’t have to wait a lot. Against Australia in the ODI series in Vadodara, Jemimah, who opened the innings for the country for the first time, scored a solid 55-ball 42 and suddenly everyone hailed her as a replacement to Mithali.

In the T20 tri-series against Australia and England at the Brabourne Stadium in March, Jemimah showed her capabilities, even notching up her first international half century. But she remained humble, especially when comparisons were drawn between her and Mithali.

“She (Mithali) is very positive while batting. It’s fun to bat with her and we had a good time while batting. She guides me, telling me to go after which bowler and against which bowler we should take singles. It’s really fun to bat with her. She is my role model and of course, it was a good learning experience for me,” Jemimah said, completely ignoring the comparisons. When prodded further, she said, “You cannot, just cannot compare me with her. I’m nowhere near her,” that’s all that she said.

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When Cristiano Ronaldo said in an interview that “I’m the greatest player in the world as nobody has achieved as much as me”, the internet trolls had a field day. Countless memes and gifs flooded the internet, poking fun at the Portuguese skipper with one even saying, “He isn’t even the greatest Ronaldo in the world”, signalling that Brazil’s Luis Ronaldo, who guided the ‘Samba Boys’ to the 2002 World Cup final, was a greater player.

After the brouhaha had settled, a big, a leading news website came out with a brilliant article highlighting what Cristiano has achieved as opposed to what yesteryear stars had. They stayed away from comparing him with Lionel Messi though, probably saving that for a later stage, perhaps when they both retire.

An astonishing fact was that since winning the FA with Manchester United in the 2003-2004 season, Cristiano has gone on to win 22 more trophies till now. And not just any trophies. They include 3 Premier Leagues, 3 La Ligas, 4 Fifa Club World Cups and most importantly, 4 Champions League trophies. Who else has such a glittering trophy cabinet? Leaving out Messi, of course. For the record, Ronaldo has won a European Championship with the national team, while the Argentinian cannot boast of anything notable in his international colours, except reaching the 2014 World Cup final.

Stats only tell half a story though. A seasoned football fan will see how Ronaldo reinvents himself every year, year after year. It’s like the same story. He seems like a desperate figure till December, scoring a goal here and there, but then come January, it’s a whole different story.

This season was no exception. After sort of losing his way back in November, he’s suddenly turned into a goal-machine in the early part of 2018.

So far this year, he has proven himself to be the king of the scorers among the six major European leagues (Portugal added to the commonly quoted ‘Big 5’). After his brace against Eibar on March 10, his 17 official goals since the turn of the year have come at such a pace that even the likes of Atletico’s Griezmann (14), Barça’s Luis Suárez and Benfica’s Jonas (both with 13), nor the trio of Messi, Neymar and Agüero, who all have 12, can keep up.

Despite his slow start across the first half of this campaign, Cristiano still wasn’t far off being top scorer of the whole of 2017, finishing third with 53 goals behind Messi (54) and Harry Kane (56). But right now he is sitting back upon his perceived throne. His return to form has seen him score an average this year of 1.41 goals per game, and the main difference has come in the league. On 18 November 2017, he left the pitch after derby with only one goal still to his name in the competition. In 2018 he has already celebrated 14, and the ratio is only getting better for Los Blancos.

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Imagine this — as a sportsperson, you work hard your whole life in order to compete on the world’s biggest stage. Your hard work pays off and you qualify for the biggest stage of them all — the Olympics.

Then at the pinnacle of your lifetime goal, you suddenly falter, and mind you, the entire world is watching as you do so. You’ve failed so miserably that all you can do is run for cover, run away from the very stage you dreamed of being on. Failure may be a stepping stone to success, but humiliation and heartbreak is definitely a hard pill to swallow. How you bounce back is indeed what differentiates the good from the great.

Meet Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, India’s Golden Girl. She won gold at the World Weightlifting Championships in USA last November, becoming only the second Indian weightlifter to win gold at the World Championships after Karnam Malleswari did the same 22 years ago in China. Chanu lifted 85 kg in snatch and 109 kg in clean and jerk to total an impressive 194 kg in the 48 kg category and in the process set a new national record in clean-and-jerk. Her own previous record was 108 kg in June last year.

During the medal ceremony, Chanu broke into tears while seeing the tricolour from the podium. “I was sure of winning a medal but never thought that I would end up finishing with gold. So when I saw the flag after wearing the gold medal around my neck, I just could not stop my tears. I got very, very emotional,” she said. “I have been training hard in Patiala, not having gone home for a long time. But it all seems worth it,” she added.

And she even skipped her sister’s wedding to participate at the world championships. “When I spoke to my mother after winning the medal, she started crying as she knows what all I have been through. She was happy that missing my sister’s wedding has not gone in vain,” Chanu said.

Hailing from the tiny state of Manipur, this diminutive lifter is all about comebacks. At the Rio Olympics, Chanu failed to even lift her entry weight of 104 kg in clean and jerk to end her 48 kg category event as DNF (Did Not Finish).

“I had really bad luck in Olympics. I could have won a medal. At the Olympic trial I had scored 192, if I could have done that I would have won silver but I couldn’t. It was my first Olympics and I got nervous,” she said.
Disappointed as she was, the lifter from Imphal decided that she was not going to give up even if she failed on the biggest stage.

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[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n the eve of the first-ever final of the Indian Super League (ISL) in 2014, a young, highly-rated defender, Sandesh Jhinghan, who was playing for Kerala Blasters, said that it’s the first time there’s going to be so much focus on him. And it’s also the first time that he’s being treated like a total professional.

Though his team lost to Atletico de Kolkata, courtesy a late header by Mohammed Rafique, Jhinghan knew that it wasn’t time to rue a final loss. It was time to be excited, reinvent and more importantly, work hard. Football was finally in the limelight.

It wasn’t as accepted as it is today though. There was more scepticism than optimism when the initial idea of having a private league came about. ‘How could there be a league when the I-League is already there? What’s the use of having a short tournament?’ were the initial questions raised. The I-League clubs were the most critical of the league. One could understand their apprehension though. How could they suddenly be relegated to the second tier of Indian football?

Reliance and IMG, the organisers of the tournament though, went about their business without paying much attention to the critics. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) gave them the support they needed. The road was clear.

Before we go ahead, here’s a little history about how IMG-R forayed into Indian football:

About seven years ago, AIFF signed a deal with IMG-RIL worth INR 700 crores roping in IMG-R as “commercial partner.” The agreement with AIFF granted IMG-RIL all commercial rights to football in India, including sponsorship, advertising, broadcasting, merchandising, film, video and data, intellectual property, franchising and new league rights. IMG-RIL would also look at scheduling, restructuring and reformatting of the domestic competitions. In addition, IMG Reliance planned to develop, operate and administer a new professional football league in the country (ISL in 2014).

Under the agreement, for the five years, IMG-RIL would give money to AIFF under the same terms and conditions that AIFF had with Zee Sports. In the next 10 years, IMG-RIL would pay AIFF an annual amount of INR 50 crore or 20% of the revenue whichever is more. IMG-RIL has also given a buyout amount of INR 70 crore to Zee Sports to exit from the agreement five years before expiry.

The first year started off with a bang. Big names like David James, Freddie Ljungberg, Alessandro del Piero, Elano, Luis Garcia and Robert Pires were signed as marquee players. Bollywood stars were roped in as brand ambassadors/co-owners of franchisees.

It was a festival of sorts. The two-month tournament broke TV viewership and stadium attendance records in the first year itself. For example, Mumbai FC’s I-League home games at the Cooperage Stadium in Colaba drew a crowd of just about 4000. Mumbai City FC’s home games at the DY Patil Stadium in Nerul saw an average spectator count of more than 26,000.

There was only a little improvement in the quality of football though. The short length of the league (2 months) was criticised by both managers and players. The players had less time to recover from games and managers didn’t have the time to see their philosophy in effect.

Players marvelled at the way they were being taken care of. They had round-the-clock physios, to sports psychologist to nutritionists. There was nothing lacking. For most it was a complete change, and they weren’t complaining, mind you.

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[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here’s nothing else that Lewis Hamilton wanted more than to seal his fourth world championship title with a win at the Mexican Grand Prix. Unfortunately for him, by the time he exited turn three with a puncture, it was off the agenda. The incident, however, showed how badly he wanted to fight for the victory, despite not needing it to secure the championship.

“My thought process when I started racing was to make it into F1. Once in F1 the goal was to win the championship. After winning the first title, I was thankful for what I had, because most drivers don’t ever make it to a title win. After winning the second, I had the same thought of being thankful. Then I had the third and now I have the fourth — and still have the same thought process.”

He had been three abreast with Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel going into turn one but recognized that continuing to do so would not end well and allowed them to go together through the corner.

They duly touched giving him the chance to go up the inside of two and the space to go in front through three. He had played the percentages and looked to be coming out on top until Vettel clipped him and the race changed.

Hamilton had checked to allow for Verstappen’s compromised exit and Vettel, it seemed, had not reacted swiftly enough. He was told that Vettel could not make second place — the minimum needed to keep the title fight alive but Hamilton was unwilling to leave anything to chance. He had a broken diffuser but made eight overtakes on seven drivers, including a climactic battle with Fernando Alonso to take ninth — ensuring that even second would not be enough for Vettel. And that’s exactly what’s called title-winning determination.

“It doesn’t feel real,” said Hamilton. “I’m really happy with this fourth. I’m going to have to take some time to really think about it but I’m proud of the flag and everyone who represents it. That’s not the kind of race that you want but I never gave up.”

Hamilton’s feat makes him the most successful British driver in Formula 1 history and draws the Mercedes driver level with Vettel and Alain Prost in the all-time standings.

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As she walked off the court after the medal ceremony, a journalist asked her to express her thoughts. All she said was: “My gold will come.”

That’s India’s Pusarla Venkata Sindhu for you. Towering at 5’10”, she’s a bundle of energy on court. Her power smashes and unbelievable reach to return almost impossible shots makes her a nightmare for opponents.

In the final in Glasgow, though Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara came out trumps, the match will go down as arguably the best women’s singles final match. They even played a 73-shot rally that was nothing short of a treat.

The question that begs is how do you recover after such a loss? Or does a loss at such a high level, after playing so well, have any real impact?

Sindhu knows the smell of defeat quite well. Her loss to Carolina Marin in the final of the Rio Games was devastating. But she didn’t let it bring her down. Instead, she used it as a catalyst to become a much-improved, determined player. What differentiates good athletes from the great ones is how they respond to failure. Sindhu has aced it, and mind you, she has lots of badminton left in her.

To reach such heights that Sindhu has reached at 22, you need to be a brilliant kid to realize early on in life what you want to do. And that’s not enough. You need an excellent support system to help you reach your goal and pick you up when down. More importantly, you need an excellent mentor/coach.

As far as inspiration is concerned, Sindhu didn’t have to look further than her current coach Pullela Gopichand. A legend in his own right, Gopichand had stunned Cheng Hong to win the men’s singles title at the All-England Badminton Championships back in March 2001. Many had written Gopichand off in 1995 when a knee injury almost ended his playing career. So bad was the injury that his chances of even walking were slim. To beat Hong in perhaps the biggest upset of the time made the feat even sweeter.

While the nation celebrated Gopichand’s achievement and couldn’t get enough of it, a young Sindhu watched in awe and admiration. Sport inspires and that Gopichand victory sowed the seeds in the young girl, who would capture the attention of billions 15 years from then. What further encouraged her was that she hailed from Gopichand’s home state of Andhra Pradesh.

Now Sindhu came from a family of sportspersons. Her parents were accomplished volleyball players and naturally wanted their child to follow in their footsteps. No doubt she would have excelled at that sport too; the badminton world was hers to come.

Sindhu’s father, PV Ramanna, who later received the Arjuna Award, had played in the Indian volleyball team that won bronze at the Seoul Asian Games in 1986. But it was Sindhu’s mother, Vijaya, who convinced him to let their daughter take up badminton seriously.

It wasn’t an easy beginning though. For starters, Sindhu had to travel over 50 kilometres every day to get to the training centre. But the young, determined girl that she was, woke up every day, rode pillion of her father’s scooter and trained hard. It was just the beginning of the sacrifices she would have to make in the gruelling world of professional badminton.

Professional coach, Mehboob Ali, was her first mentor and tutored her on the basics of the game at the badminton courts of the Indian Institute of Signal Engineering and Telecommunications. While that surely saw her headed in the right direction, her real learning began when at the age of nine, her idol Gopichand decided to take her under his wing at his academy at Gachibowli, on the outskirts of Hyderabad.

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[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he footballing world was turned upside down when the buzz that Neymar Jr wanted to leave Barcelona came afloat. I mean, they easily had the best strike-force in the world with the Brazilian, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez. It seemed only a matter of time before the ‘MSN’ trio would conquer the world.

But football is a business and a rather funny one. The Neymar transfer saga is the perfect example of just that. More than getting pulses racing, it’s raised questions aplenty. Why would a player of Neymar’s stature and calibre want to leave arguably the best team in the world?

Let’s address the more pertinent topic in the saga. How did PSG decide that 220 million euros was the price they would pay for Neymar, effectively doubling the current most expensive transfer fee?

We’re not just talking the most expensive footballer of all time; we’re talking a flamboyant personality and a magician with his feet who cost more than a quarter of a billion dollars. That’s Paul Pogba plus Cristiano Ronaldo with enough left over to cover their wages until Christmas!

In his entire time at the Catalan giants, Neymar has always played second fiddle to Messi, although for stretches during the league, the former has often looked the better player by far. The Brazilian is all about the flare. He likes to be the man-in-charge, a prima donna so to say. At Barcelona however, he wasn’t allowed that freedom like he had with the national team.

Not that PSG is any less though. With the likes of Edinson Cavani, Angel di Maria, Marco Verratti and Javier Pastore, the Parisian giants have their own ‘Galacticos’, but Neymar is a far bigger star than them all, and that’s including Julian Draxler, Lucas Moura and Hatem Ben Afra. At PSG, he’ll be the captain of the ship, a role that the lanky striker thrives on.

PSG are not new to making popular, expensive signings. One can’t forget their 2012 signing of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. They made up his transfer fee and much more in the form of four straight league titles and quarterfinal finishes in the Champions League.

Zlatan raised the bar quite high and Neymar will directly be compared with him. Zlatan may have put PSG on the superpower map, but Neymar would need to ensure they become champions of Europe for his signing to be defined as a success.

For Barcelona though, it’s more of a psychological setback than a footballing one. It’s the third time a buyout clause has been used by a rival club. First it was Inter Milan with $27 million for the original Ronaldo. Then in 2000, Real Madrid made off with Luis Figo for $74 million.

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[dropcap]C[/dropcap]irca 5 December 2013. The FIFA executive meeting was being held in Salvador, Brazil, where the host of the 2017 U-17 World Cup would be decided.

Back in India, the football scene was pretty much mundane. The I-League was the only real competition and lacked the impetus to take football to the next level. Things were looking up though, with the Indian Super League (ISL), after a couple years of postponement, was set to be launched the following year.

It was late in the evening that fifth day of December, when FIFA announced that India beat Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Ireland to win the right to host the U-17 tourney. It would be the first FIFA event to be held on Indian soil.

India captain Sunil Chhetri was fast asleep. His team, Bengaluru FC, were scheduled to take on Churchill Brothers the following day in their I-League clash. Reporters kept pestering his manager for quotes about India winning the bid, and he had no option but to wake up the skipper. A half-sleepy Chettri then said, off the record of course, “I should be sleeping right now. Nobody disturbs me when I’m gone to sleep a day before a match. But I’ll gladly make an exception this time. This is the best news I’ve ever woken up to. I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep properly now.” On the record, Chettri, India’s all-time leading goal-scorer said, “Winning the right to host the U-17 World Cup is India’s biggest achievement so far. This tournament is going to act as a catalyst in boosting Indian football. There couldn’t be a single happier moment.”

With less than 90 days to go for the tournament which is going to be held from October 6-28, India has seen a sort of resurgence in football. The national team has risen to 96 in the FIFA rankings and are on an eight-match unbeaten run. They recently beat Kyrgyz Republic 1-0 in the AFC Asian Cup qualifier and are looking steady as ever. The ISL has been extended to a 10-team five-month AFC-certified league. The I-League is in shambles, but that’s a story for another time.

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