Brandon Fernandes: The Indian footballer who could rock Europe

The Alvino Memorial Tournament takes place in Goa every year. It’s a seven-a-side tournament and features an Under-12 category. Brandon Fernandes played for four straight years in that tournament captaining his side — his team reached the final once and won the tournament once. While the other players were closer to the age limit — the first time Fernandes played in it, he was just seven years old. Today, Fernandes is a 19-year-old forward and India’s finest young prospect to break into a European league. And he’s added a lot to his CV since those seven-a-side games in Goa. He has had trials with Reading FC, Leicester City and Sunderland in England, travelled to Spain, Portugal and Belgium to train and play games, represented India at U-14, U-16 and U-19 levels and had a two-year stint with ASD Cape Town (Africa Soccer Developments), one of the premier football academies in South Africa. In just four years, ASD has produced three full internationals and two of their graduates play in the top tier of Belgian football. In short, Fernandes has everything going according to plan. The only thing that remains is signing on the dotted line of a good football club — and he’s adamant that this club has to be in Europe. I’m at a different level The modern day footballer has to be physically strong, agile, fast and skillful. Mentally, a certain cockiness has to be expected — that extra bit of belief that makes a Cristiano Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho – the Special One. And Fernandes has that in abundance. At first, Fernandes is shy and wary of who he’s talking to. But as soon as you ask him, “Brandon, what’s your story?” he opens up — the mention of football brings him out of his cocoon. [caption id=“attachment_1309855” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Brandon while training in South Africa. Facebook[/caption] Brandon is unattached at the moment, open to offers. Would he play for a club in the J-League in Japan? “No.” What about a club in an African league? “No.” Okay, Qatar, UAE? “No.” “I’ve had offers from Indian clubs too but I haven’t taken them. I’m at a different level — your standards go up (when you are abroad). I’ve been across Europe and I can distinguish the speed of the game. I know how good I am and am confident of getting a club there. It makes no sense for me to train abroad for such a long time and then end up in any other place but Europe,” Fernandes told us over the phone from Goa, where he is taking part in the Lusofinia Games. Too cocky? No, according to ASD’s owner and Director Mike Steptoe. Steptoe is in Leicester at the moment and spoke to us over the phone: “He’s right. He should not take any offers from anywhere because it’s in Europe that he belongs. He must be patient.” Steptoe has overseen Brandon’s development for the last two years and says that the player has grown in leaps and bounds in that time. However, he then adds something worrying: “Whenever we released him to play for India U-17 or U-19, his development was held back. We’re very professional in our training, nutrition and playing style. In India, he fed off second-balls while at ASD we promoted a passing game where a player like Brandon flourishes.” Fernandes himself feels that staying in India will not help him: “If I rated training style in Europe as 10/10, then ASD would be 8/10 and India… 4/10. I see my old mates at Salgaocar and they’re still eating vada-pav before games. It doesn’t work like that.” Being Indian: ‘Why don’t you play cricket?’ Fernandes’ trials in England have received media coverage. It’s a surprise he hasn’t been snapped up by a club yet, Steptoe tells us. But on the other hand, he’s been extremely unlucky. At Leicester, Nigel Pearson was looking to invest only in players who would make an immediate impact. At Sunderland, Martin O’Neill’s staff had decided to sign him up when the bomb fell — O’Neill and his staff were sacked and in came Paulo di Canio and a new director of youth development (since then, di Canio has also been sacked). At Reading, there were problems between the management and coaching staff when Fernandes trialled. “Sunderland’s academy director says that he’s good but only as good as the young England internationals he’s got. My scout goes, ‘how many years are those young English players with you?’ 10 years. Then he goes, ’this guy has been training since the last two years is all.’ But in a way it’s good. Brandon will learn from these experiences of rejection.” And Fernandes seems pretty strong willed: “I walked into Leicester for a trial and one of the guys asked me ‘are you really a football player? Why don’t you play cricket?’ I asked him to see me on the field and decide. They thought I was too short,” says Fernandes, who is 165 cms tall and weighs 62 kg — an average Indian build which may go against him at least in England. [caption id=“attachment_1309857” align=“alignleft” width=“255”] Brandon has played for India at U17 and U19 levels. Facebook[/caption] “I’ve been asked not to just look at England. Coaches have told me to go to technical leagues, not physical leagues.” But Leicester City’s coaching staff says he’s their ‘most technically gifted’ triallist and an agent directed him to Leeds United but Fernandes didn’t think Leeds was the right place to go. For those wondering, Leicester City are not a bad team — they’re third in the Championship at the moment and have a shot at making it to the Premier League next season. He had similar problems in South Africa. “The opponents knew there was an Indian in the side. It was an U-19 game and the coach put me on for the last 15 minutes. You know what? In 10 of those minutes I got three touches of the ball — three. Then in the last five minutes, I got the ball in the middle, tried a long-ranger and it went in. After that, they knew my name too — I wasn’t just another Indian,” Fernandes said. Since then, two more Indians have joined ASD Capetown. ‘I feel the pressure’ Since that scorcher in South Africa to announce himself, Fernandes has been watched by scouts from clubs across Europe. The pace of his development has been phenomenal. “Scouts came from Sunderland to specifically see him and he had a cracking game that day — I think he scored two goals. They flew him business class to England. These guys were serious.” Fernandes tells us that these trials came to him like a whirlwind. There was too much happening. “It was all over the papers, even stuff like a deal being handed out. In fact, they were just negotiations.” This is partly down to India’s desperation to see one of their own finally break into Europe. It stems from a desire to prove that the country just doesn’t watch football, it even plays it with fervour. “I think that’s right (Indians are desperate for a star who plays abroad) and yes, I feel the pressure of that on my shoulders. There is the constant interest and the rumours. Newspapers write about me and there’s a lot of chatter on Facebook. But I try not to think about this the moment I take to the pitch.” ‘There are hundreds of Brandons’ Fernandes, according to Steptoe, is a great crosser, has an excellent work-rate and is good at set-pieces. He’s particularly good at taking on a player and crossing it in, but will ‘score many goals’ if he’s deployed behind the striker. But Asian players are usually described like that — technically gifted, but what about football sense? “Lets compare a Japanese and an Indian player. Both are technically, even physically the same. But you don’t pass. You guys just don’t pass!” says Steptoe, clearly disappointed that India isn’t using their potential. The ASD chief tells us that for one philosophy to permeate through the nation, kids need to be inducted into it when they’re 12-years-old. “The country is so fragmented it’s hard. The development is not focused towards an objective. If I can set up 3-4 residential academies in the country, I can absolutely guarantee that we’ll find hundreds of hidden Brandons.”