It is a massive opportunity for players, coaches and officials: Punjab FC coach Sankarlal Chakraborty ahead of PL Next Gen Cup [Exclusive]

Punjab FC qualified for the PL Next Gen Cup in England after winning the RFDL tournament earlier in the year.

Punjab FC are set for their maiden voyage to England to take part in the PL Next Gen Cup. The tournament will be the first major overseas exposure for the Roundglass-owned outfit. The management have made youth development their prime focus ever since taking over the club. The Punjab-based outfit were the only ISL club to clear club licensing without any sanctions, which includes youth development as one of the major criteria for acquiring a license. 

The Next Generation Cup youth tournament will see three clubs from India taking with four Premier League sides and a South African outfit. The tournament will be held at the Bodymoor training ground of Aston Villa. Punjab FC, East Bengal and Muthoot FA were chosen to take part in this prestigious tournament after they finished in the top three positions respectively in the Reliance Foundation Development League (RFDL). 

The PL sides in the tournament include hosts Aston Villa, Everton, Tottenham Hotspur and Crystal Palace along with the South African outfit Stellenbosch FC, who finished runners-up at the previous edition of the competition.

Khel Now had the privilege of speaking with Sankarlal Chakraborty, the coach of the Punjab FC youth team before the commencement of the competition on 1st August. Excerpts of the exclusive conversation are below:

Importance of exposure tournament.

Sankarlal Chakraborty spoke about the importance of his side taking part in the Next Generation Cup and squaring up against the best youth teams of the PL. He started, “Every coach, every player in this country who is associated with football everyone has a dream. Everyone wants to see what is happening in EPL. They all wish to go there to play, watch and learn. Through RFDL, we got an opportunity.”

He added “The PL teams we play against now are the teams we watch on TV, even though they are a youth team and we are also a youth team. But, we are going inside the competition. It is a big motivation. We have prepared with this motivation to play against the big sides and we will try to perform well.”

Exchanging ideas with English coaches.

The PL Next Gen Cup will not only give exposure to the young Indian players, but it will also give a chance to Indian coaches to exchange ideas with their English counterparts and implement those in India. Shankarlal reckons it is a big opportunity and stated, “It is a massive opportunity for players, coaches and the officials who are traveling, they all want to go to the EPL. To play, watch and coach.

“I’m the same. It’s a challenge for me to play against a European team and to do well. Because realistically, they are way ahead of us. But still, anything can happen. Nothing is impossible. So, if players do well, then the name of the coach will be good.“

Youth development & Punjab FC

After having taken over the club in 2020, one of the priorities of the management was to excel in youth development and to create a pipeline of players gradually moving ahead across age-groups. Sankarlal Chakraborty is one of the major figures that hold a key to implementing the club’s vision.  

“The way Punjab FC, for the last couple of years, has been running under our technical director Nikolaos Tapoliatis. That’s why we were successful today. Today, we have progressed well in the U-11, U-13, U-15. If you see, we were unbeaten in 16 matches. We were champions, but we were unbeaten in 16 matches. So, this means that the quality of the players is so good, for which we feel proud. From there, 6-7 players are in the first-team of ISL, So, this is a huge thing, “ he noted.

How to keep young players grounded?

Indian football, in recent years, has seen many players with tremendous potential fade away due to the unsporting lifestyle. The measures taken by the club in this regard are highly commendable. Not only does the club teach football, but it also teaches its players life lessons to stay humble.  

Hailing the club’s approach the coach explained, “At Punjab FC, there are separate co-living sessions that teach young players how you have to live, how you have to eat, how you have to talk, how you have to be humble, how you have to be kind. Because you will play football well only when you are a good person. So, now what happens is that there are 30-40 players. Not everyone is the same. So, the discipline that follows after attending these classes goes up.”

Chances to local players

The club have been at the receiving end of criticism for the lack of representation of local youth. Chakraborty believes that it is necessary for the club to have local players.  He opined, “In India’s past history in football Punjab was one of the pillar points. Punjab, Bengal, Goa, Kerala, all these places were well-known back in the day. Later, Punjab went way back. There could be any reason, which we don’t know.

“But, after Punjab FC started, the management, the technical director, we played the Punjab local league with 7-8 Punjabi players. In this team (Next Gen Cup) as well we  have Punjabi players. Also, since we are a club from Punjab we need to give importance to the Punjabi players because this is the way  (the football ecosystem) in Punjab will improve and if Punjab improves our country will also improve,” he signed off.

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