Our defender and rising Indian football star, Narender Gahlot has come a long way since his Chandigarh Football Academy days. He’s a hard worker, he constantly pushes himself to get better and despite the lockdown and the world order thrown into chaos, he’s continuously working on sharpening his techniques. His updates on Instagram is a testimonial to that fact.
In this exclusive interview, the youngster talks about anything and everything football
On keeping up with fitness and routine despite the lockdown…
Looking at the competition for spots in the senior national team, we are keeping ourselves fit by doing exercises and workouts as well as doing some training with the ball.
On how his journey began…
Initially, I used to play football in my village. Then I even started visiting Delhi to play. But I decided to take up football as a career when I joined Chandigarh Football Academy (CFA).
Despite missing the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017 due to injury, Narender didn’t stop himself from getting better and becoming a crucial part of the Indian football clubs.
On his experience with Indian Arrows…
We had never played against experienced and senior players before. Our main aim was to give other teams a fight. We also wanted to win the ball and keep clean sheets.
On becoming a part of the Jamshedpur FC Senior team and his journey with the club so far…
Many ISL clubs were interested in me but Sukhan Sir (his academy coach) advised me to join Jamshedpur FC because of the facilities and the project. They promised me game-time and so I joined them. I didn’t have a pre-season because I was involved with the U-19 national team in AFC Championship Qualifiers. When I came back, four games had already been over. I came back and had a good training session just before the FC Goa game. The coach told me I’ll play, but after that our team faced injuries and everything changed.
On his Indian debut against Tajikistan in the Intercontinental Cup last year…
I didn’t know I would play the first game. We had a practice session just before matchday and after that, in the team meeting, the coach told me I will start, and he said ‘I’m confident you’ll do well’ because I had a good practice game in Mumbai. The coach told us not to sit back in the game and in the first half, we went 2-0 ahead. He told us to play higher up the pitch, but we conceded goals in the second half.
On getting the opportunity to play under national team coach, Igor Stimac…
The experience for me has been great. At Indian Arrows (I-league), we played a passing game and learnt to keep more possession, and, in the U-23 team, we played with the same philosophy. It has helped me personally in my game and he is a kind of coach who gives confidence to players. Even if we make a mistake, he doesn’t shout at us, only tells us to improve. I feel the team is moving in the right direction. The previous coach had a different philosophy and the new coach has brought a new philosophy, which the players are adapting to. The players are learning to keep possession and how to defend well which will only happen after some time. I have no doubts that the team will do well in the future.
On his future goals with the national team…
My dream is to see the national team qualifying for the FIFA World Cup. I didn’t dream of playing for a big club (overseas), but I want to reach the quarterfinals, semifinals and the final of the AFC Champions League with an Indian club.
Source: khelnow.com
