He was nineteen, a debutant in Kolkata, a long way from the academies in Spain and England where much of his football education had happened. The wall belonged to Mohammedan Sporting, one of the oldest clubs in Asian football. Joshi bent the ball over it and in.
Eighty-one minutes into a game that meant far more to Samaleswari Sporting than the scoreline could explain, Veer Arjun Joshi stood over a free-kick, scores level at 2-2. Samaleswari won 3-2, and somewhere in that arc lay the entire premise of what the 135th IndianOil Durand Cup has been trying to do for its youngest players.
For Naorem Somananda Singh of the Indian Air Force Football Team, the tournament has doubled as a classroom. His defining moment came against Defenders FC, the Sri Lankan Armed Forces side, when the ball broke loose just outside the box and he met it with a strike that flew into the net. He is already looking towards where it all leads. “It’s a very prestigious tournament and one of the best platforms for upcoming players. “For me, it was the match against SC Delhi. They are a big team. We showed that we can perform against a big team and that we have the right attitude. The tournament sharpened his sense of how far he still has to travel. “I learned a lot about how to play against top teams and handle difficult situations on the pitch. It showed me the level I need to reach and what I need to improve,” he added, his ambitions reaching well past this year. “My goals are to play for the Indian team and the ISL one day. I know there is a lot of work ahead, so I want to keep improving every day. Elsewhere, other emerging players wrote their own version of the same story. Saikhom Borish Singh gave the Indian Army Football Team an energetic, direct presence in the attacking third, unafraid to take on opponents and create chances, backing it up with goals of his own. For Joshi, it was a free-kick against Mohammedan Sporting. For Somananda, a strike against international opposition and an ongoing education in what the country’s best do differently. For Vanlalpeka, a goal against SC Delhi and a growing conviction that he belongs among bigger teams. For Altab, an award validating year inside a structured programme and a clear line of sight to the ISL and the national team. For Rinshid, the discovery that a player with no formal footballing background can hold his own at a higher level. And for Borish Singh, Doley, Mukhim, Dawancha, Rituraj and Lalpekhlua, their own moments of making a mark within a tournament built to allow exactly that.
As an emerging player, I would say it’s an incredible stage to perform and showcase our talents so that we can improve, get noticed, and eventually make it to the national team.
“The goal I scored against the Sri Lankan team, Defenders FC, was the biggest moment of my career, I think,” he said. For me personally, scoring that goal was also a special moment,” he said.
