When Nedo Turkovic scored the equaliser in the dying minutes against East Bengal the NEROCA bench erupted and ran towards the corner flag to celebrate the goal. Such wild celebrations are generally reserved for grander occasions.
Cut to the final matchday. NEROCA are leading 1-0 at half-time against East Bengal and news would have already trickled in that William Opoku had put Minerva in the lead against Churchill Brothers in Chandigarh. Gift Raikhan was seen motivating his boys to concentrate on the game on hand and maintain the lead, and leave the rest to the god. NEROCA did not lose the battle against East Bengal that day but they lost the war - the league title.
Raikhan and his men had come a long way at the end of their campaign and even after being the runners-up they were not found celebrating. The journey has given them the confidence to not only try and restrict their more illustrious opponents but also have implanted in them a desire to beat the best to be the best.
"We exceeded our expectations as we were hoping to finish fourth or fifth. But it did pinch a bit when the results did not go our way on the final matchday and we lost the title by a couple of points. But our feet are strongly grounded and next season also we will look for a top-four finish. If we get the opportunity to go for silverware we will go for it," said Naoba Thangjam to Goal.
NEROCA's success cannot be attributed to a single player but only through collective efforts they managed to achieve what seemed impossible at the start of the season. The team had a perfect balance of youth and experience, guided by a shrewd tactician named Gift Raikhan. Although Raikhan will not be sitting in the dugout next season, the management are remaining true to their philosophy of finding the right combination of young and experienced candidates.
"Out of the 20 local players we have retained 10 and the rest have been released as they were not up to the mark. Some of them have got better offers like Tondonba has moved to Chennaiyin. Pritam (Singh) is also looking to sign with an ISL team but that is not yet confirmed. Some experienced players like Lalit Thapa and Subhash has been retained. We are getting in more young talents. We will have 10 U-22 players in the squad. So we are looking to mix and match," revealed Thangjam.
Varney Kallon and Felix Chidi have also extended their contracts and NEROCA are in talks with Aryn Williams for an extension. As far as reinforcements are concerned, the technical team will be holding trials and then give the nod to fill up the vacant positions of the foreign contingent. "It is a long way to go. We want to get the best and so we are not hurrying. The whole process will get over by July," said the CEO.
Sponsorship remains a stumbling block as corporate companies are not always interested to invest in a team hailing from the Nort-East. Therefore, small budget teams like NEROCA, Shillong Lajong and Aizawl FC primarily depend on academy talent to fill their ranks.
"We are a small budget club and the expenses do not exceed 2.5-3 Crore rupees. We will start with our own academy in two-three years. We are in process of acquiring a large piece of land. We will start with a non-residential academy and then move on to build a residential one. There a lot of young talents going out of Manipur and registering themselves with Minerva's academy and the Tata Football Academy. I was just speaking to Ranjit (Ranjit Bajaj) and he told me that 70 per cent of his boys are Manipuris. We would like to tap into that pool and retain some for our academy so that our senior team can benefit from it. Also, we can earn revenue as transfer fees by selling them off to other clubs.
We have been investing in NEROCA as the fans motivate us to do so. They are filling up the stadium on all match-days. Ticket prices form an important part of our revenue and hopefully, within a few years we can become self-sustainable," stated Thangjam.
The young entrepreneur hopes and believes that India will soon be having an unified league with more teams which will benefit Indian football. But there are some things which he irks him and finds difficult to understand.
"I don't understand why ISL clubs are not ready to merge with us. I was just joking one day that if ISL reserve teams are allowed to play in I-League 2nd Division why is their senior team not ready to play with our top team? There are around six or seven ISL reserve teams playing in second division. So if they are ready to play in the second division I-League why is their senior team not ready to play with us? I don't get this," questions Thangjam.
He made it clear that it is beyond his understanding that clubs have to pay a franchisee fee when the same money can be used for football and infrastructure development in their respective clubs.
"You cannot expect small clubs like us to compete financially but yes, on the pitch we can compete well against them. The financial criteria should be relaxed. Whatever money I have, I would like to spend in my academy and training ground so that football infrastructure develops. How will football get benefited by the 15 Cr the organisers are pocketing? What are they going to do with that money? It does not make any sense to me," concluded Thangjam.
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