ARINDAM GANGULY, OP
Bhubaneswar, June 17: The football fever surrounding the FIFA World Cup in Russia is slowly, but surely gripping the aficionados of the game here in the city. Cristiano Ronaldo’s hat-trick against Spain and Lionel Messi’s penalty miss against Iceland have already become hot topics of discussions for the football lovers. For 13-year-old Chandan Nayak it was a moment of agony when Messi missed the penalty against Iceland. He is a die-hard Messi fan and Ronaldo’s success against Spain had him seething in anger.
Chandan is a football prodigy and is expected to make a name for himself in the sport, having already attended the famous Bayern Munich football academy a couple of years back where he had the chance to learn the tricks of the trade from Thomas Muller who is currently playing for Germany in Russia.
Chandan is disappointed at Messi having missed out against Iceland, but is confident that his football god will regain form soon. “He deserves to win the World Cup and I am sure he will do it this time around,” asserted Chandan. “He is a genius and the World Cup winner’s medal should be in his trophy cabinet,” he added.
Chandan himself has a dream of one day showcasing his skills on the world stage and is working very hard under the guidance of coach Jayadev Mohapatra to fulfil his dreams. There are many thorns in his path, the most telling being that of poverty. Without a father, it is Chandan’s mother Duhita Nayak who looks after his needs. “It is very difficult for me to provide proper nutrition to Chandan,” informed Duhita, who does menial jobs to make both ends meet. ‘I hope there were some help from the sports department or the state government,” she added. Chandan recently returned from a seven-month stint at the Bhaichung Bhutia Football School in New Delhi.
He was a part of the school team that took part in the under-13 I-League and scored 27 goals in 13 matches. More importantly, he got tips from Bhutia himself as well as many other players of the national side including current India skipper Sunil Chhetri. But as of now, his prayers are for one man only. Who else but Lionel Messi?