NEUE ROMANTIC und SAME PLATZ

It was 12th march 2015, India was playing Nepal and for some random reason, a person searching for a movie just got glued to the channel and game he never cared about. When the first goal went in, this person felt a jolt in his veins like never before; Fell in love for the first time.

Fast forward 2019, India is in AFC Asian Cup after a gap of 8 years, we had the second youngest team, a coach half the nation wanted to be sacked and a team which denied to play a friendly with us “Cause we were not good enough”. It was magical as the things unfolded and we did hammer a better team four goals to one : something every Indian football fan relished. Then came the heartbreak with UAE and Bahrain but overall we did show we were on the right way of waking from a giant nap.

As every Indian football fan, I did support a Euro club and an Indian club. Last season it was hard because when your club could have won the league but lost the momentum and dropped second to a club owned by oil money. The fights between leagues, new and unheard stories of football are still the beauty of Indian football. A club that won the league after getting back from relegation or a club from the valley which makes every Indian support their growth or a well-structured club or the yellow sea Manjapada or clubs with the rich history of Goa and Kolkata, yet no Indian club felt home even after such rich variety.

Being from a place where India's greatest coach came and a good number of Olympians walked, this place ( Hyderabad - Deccan, India ) is not new to the sport, you see kids playing the game on streets and men fighting on European clubs but one thing is true - the love for the game is true. We know our history, we know our game but did not have a club to call home. FATEH gave us hope after Hyderabad police that they never made it to I-league but it never happened. ISL season 6 was sudden but a new fan group sprouted for a team for which the whole city waited for at least four decades.

Game one we ( HFC - Hyderabad Football Club ) lost to ATK 5-0, game two we lost but what gave us hope was an attendance of 12,114 where we beat Kerala blasters at home. That day it felt home, like I belong here I don't know how long my club will stay in the TOP tier or the Indian football club system but every game played at the stadium just outside my office and every roar from it is something to cherish.

Having a club in a city doesn't mean it has a football platform but when the numbers add up and increase every year will give the club the true purpose it started for. To end, it would also be the same as every Indian football fans says- “The road is long but the belief is strong”.

Onwards and Upwards for HFC.

By-Chakravarthy Bodla (Instagram-@chakri97)

EC: Manoj Sandoori