I would cry watching India play: Jeje

It is still difficult but it was impossible till last June for the recently-retired Jeje Lalpekhlua to watch India play. “I would start crying sometimes,” he said.

To be at home when India lined up was something the bulldozer of a striker from Mizoram, Sunil Chhetri’s partner of choice since their joint-venture began in 2011, could not come to terms with. “My mind is keen on playing, but the knees are not supporting me. What can I do?”

So, he stopped watching. Till the Asian Cup qualifiers in Kolkata where India beat Cambodia, Afghanistan and Hong Kong to make the finals for the second time in a row. “The team is doing well. I am so happy to see that. To qualify for the Asian Cup is a big achievement,” he said.

When India did that in 2019, Lalpekhkua was part of the squad. He scored the last of his 23 international goals in the 4-1 win against Thailand. He played 56 internationals during which he had a sequence of nine goals in as many games, led in Iran in a World Cup qualifier and scored in the final of two SAFF Championships (2011 and 2015) both of which India won.

Lalpekhlua also scored home and away against Laos in an Asian Cup qualifier; his goal was among the three he scored against Cambodia in 2017 which fetched India their first away friendly win in 12 years and it was his assist on the break for Chhetri that fetched the win against Kyrgyz Republic, also in an Asian Cup qualifier, in 2017 in Bengaluru. Along with his first game against Chinese Taipei in 2011 and wearing the armband in Iran, Lalpekhlua listed that as his most memorable moments in an India shirt.

A majority of those came with a left knee that was uncooperative when not dodgy. Speaking to the Hindustan Times’ podcast Kicks For Free, Lalpekhlua said he was injured in 2012 and “never 100% after that.” He managed only because of India team physios and those at Chennayin FC. And because for the first three seasons, Chennaiyin FC had Marco Materazzi as coach.

“He was serious about injury management. Earlier, in the I-League, people used to ask you to play even with injuries. Now with the ISL, everyone is serious about injuries. I am happy about the change that I have seen,” he said.

Lalpekhlua dominated football for six to seven years, Chhetri told reporters in Kolkata before the Asian Cup qualifiers. “For India, it was almost like Gurpreet (Singh) to Jeje and then we would start.” He was a player who didn’t have a good header, but he could take on defenders, control the ball and then, say, “Bhai, yeh lo!”

By 2019, the knee needed surgical reconstruction. And though he sought advice from a doctor in Italy who had operated on Memphis Depay, it never healed. “After surgery, when I joined East Bengal, I had a lot of problems with the knee. I used to cry at night. I did everything I could to continue playing. But you have to accept what God has in store for you. That is why I made the decision to retire.”

The announcement came in February, 10 days short of two years after his last club game. And yet, “it was one of the hardest steps in my career.”

Lalpekhlua stays connected to football through his academy in Mizoram, one he built so that boys and girls are not left with no training till they are 17 like he was. He is also part of the Mizoram football association.

When the conversation moved to Saturday’s ISL final, Lalpekhlua, after pointing out that he was part of teams that denied Bengaluru FC an I-League in 2015 and an ISL in 2017-18 at their home, said the gap between Bengaluru FC and STK Mohun Bagan is very narrow and that they are both good at defending.

Winning a title is about teamwork, “something that you can smell from the first training session. If you don’t play like a team, you can never win the league.” If that sounds simple it is because for Lalpekhlua, football was a simple game he was good at.