Kopa Tigers appoints Okolie Odafa as ‘brand ambassador’! Associates with La Palmas
Sudeep Pakrashi: After a gap of almost 14 years, Okolie Odafa is back in Bengal football! The once heartthrob of Mohun Bagan fans as well as Kolkata’s football fraternity, the lethal Nigerian striker will again be seen in the forthcoming Bengal Super League (BSL) franchise football tournament. The 40-year-old footballer, who last had a brief stint with Gokulam Kerala FC in 2018, has been chosen as the ‘brand ambassador’ of Kopa Tigers Birbhum in the BSL. The franchise-owner Avijit Roy revealed that Odafa will be present in the official media conference of Kopa Tigers on 8th December he will also be present in the team’s first home match of the League at Dubrajpur Stadium. Kopa Tigers has already been running a residential football school in Bolpur for the last six months. The academy has 22 students of different age groups from under-13 to under-19 and 15 students in its non-residential coaching program. Interestingly, the academy has two foreign students, one from Tonga and the other from Ghana. Roy, when asked about plans on developing football in their region, explained, “Our key motive is to produce footballers of international quality. We know that unless a potential youngster gets adequate match time, he cannot gain maturity. So, we already have a tie-up with the Goan premier team, Churchill Brothers. Following the agreement, potential performers from our academy will join Churchill Brothers and take part in the youth-level tournaments for Churchill in Goa and other places. Secondly, we are in the final stage of associating our academy with the famous Spanish club Deportivo Las Palmas. We want our potential boys to get the best of training and match-exposure under the observation of Las Palmas academy coaches and scouts.” While commenting on the franchise teams’ financial gain from the BSL, Roy explained, “On behalf of our franchise, I can say, we can reach the break-even point in terms of financial gains in the first year. As a popular television channel has been the broadcaster of the league, BSL will be televised across the country and in a few countries of the world. Naturally, the business houses will certainly be interested in joining the League in future.” Kopa Tigers, which has registered 25 footballers, including their marquee footballer, Tajikistan’s midfielder Komron Tursunov. Plans are there to rope in another foreign footballer. They are apart, the team comprise footballers from the CFL Premier Division and tribal players from Birbhum district. Roy looked enthusiastic while commenting, “Nearly 20 tribal youngsters are already training at our academy. Some among them are highly potential. We are going to conduct a selection trial only with more young tribal footballers on 27th November. One of our key motives is to is to find out and scout more talented young tribal footballers in future. They already have two coaches under Ghanaian chief coach Joseph. Bengal’s former coach Ranjan Bhattacharya has joined the franchise as mentor, and now the franchise has decided to rope in a licensed coach from England who will also be looking after the overall training program.
Matthuas tips for the ultimate progress of Indian football
FIFA World Cup-winning German legend Lothar Matthaus delivered clear advice, looking forward to the future of Indian football, during his visit to the city on Sunday. Matthaus, who has been chosen as the brand ambassador of the forthcoming Bengal Super League (BSL) to be held in Bengal, emphasized the initiatives to develop the quality of coaching at the grassroots level for the nation’s ultimate football progress. Matthaus gave a reference to Cape Verde’s qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and commented. “When you see Cape Verde for example, they qualified for FIFA World Cup 2026, it’s a country with 5 Lakh people and then I ask you, you will not tell me they have better and more talents than the players from India, but you have to work very well together, Federation, with the government, with the football clubs, with the academies and you have to find the right teachers, teachers mean coaches.” Drawing an analogy between education and football development, he added, “This is the same in the school, when you have a good teacher and a good professor, you get good students, when you have good coaches in the youth age and later in the age of over 18, then you will get better players and then you get better players, you will make better results and this can be the way for the Indian football in the future.” Matthaus was in Kolkata as the chief guest for the final of the inaugural Kolkata Police Women’s Friendship Cup Football Tournament, held at the Body Guard Lines. He was also the chief guest of the Indian Football Association’s (IFA) annual prize distribution at the city’s historic Town Hall on the day. He presented the Champion’s Trophy to the CFL Premier Division winner, East Bengal. During the prize distribution function, Matthaus had a brief fun with East Bengal coach Bino George, who was awarded the ‘Best Coach of the Year.’ However, during his interaction with reporters, the German great also revisited an age-old debate — Diego Maradona or Lionel Messi? He admitted that the comparison was nearly impossible. “It’s a very difficult question and I cannot give you an answer because the time has changed as football has been faster like all other activities around the world. I can say Maradona was the best of my generation.” Pressed to choose between Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, Matthaus admitted his personal preference leans toward the Argentine. “For me, Messi, but I like only his style more than Ronaldo, but I think when you speak about who is better, I think it’s the same, the feeling, how you like to see the football. Messi is more technical, Ronaldo is more powerful, and I am more for the technical football. This doesn’t mean Ronaldo has no technique, but Messi’s technique is better,” he said.
Shrachi Sports announces legendary Lothar Matthaus as the brand ambassador of Bengal Super League
Shrachi Sports announced legendary German World-Cup-winning footballer Lothar Matthaus as ‘the brand ambassador’ of the introductory Bengal Super League (BSL) football championship starting from 7th December across the state. BSL, which will be organized by Shrachi Sports and IFA jointly, will feature eight franchise teams from eight districts. The announcement was made on Friday in a media conference at a city hotel. It was also announced that Matthaus is coming to Kolkata next month. Ayan Bandopadhyay, CEO of Shrachi Sports, said in the media conference, “The key purpose of starting BSL is to create the supply-line of Bengali footballers for the Indian team in the future. In recent years, Bengali footballers have been hardly seen in the national teams of most of the age-group teams as well as the senior national team. Even Bengali footballers are rarely observed in the country’s top-flight championship, ISL. But there is no dearth of potential Bengali footballers and most of them can be noticed across the districts. So, BSL, following the IPL format will help spot quality Bengali footballers for the national teams in the future. BSL will also inspire the ISL teams, especially East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, to think about recruiting potential Bengali footballers in the future.” The eight franchise teams from districts like Siliguri, Maldah, Birbhum, North and South 24 Parganas, and Howrah, will be participating in the BSL. In a bid to emphasize on participation of Bengali footballers, rules have been made that each team will be able to field only two foreigners and two national-level out-stationed footballers in a match. They have to put seven Bengali footballers, including under-19 footballers, on the ground. The agreement between Shrachi Sports and IFA has been made on a 10-year basis to run BSL. Significantly, former India internationals from Bengal will also be working with eight franchise teams as mentors during the League.