A club started by an engineer from football’s backwater Rajasthan, made it to the I-League

“It feels like a Hollywood film,” says 26-year-old civil engineer Kamal Saroha, co-owner of Rajasthan United.

Over the years, the I-League has produced several underdog storylines – be it the rise of Bengaluru FC, the rise of Aizawl, the spirited Minerva Punjab, or the gritty performances by Real Kashmir.

With each passing season and every heart-warming story, the league expanded its footprint across the country. In that sense, Rajasthan United’s merit carries on Minnow’s trend of defying the odds in Indian football.

Plus, their rise is different.

Every area that witnessed these wonders on the field had some sort of football culture. Though not Rajasthan. The state was home to the Rajasthan Armed Constabulary, one of India’s famous teams of the 60s and 70s.

But it has never had a professional club nor produced a coveted player since the two Rajvi brothers, Magan and Chen, who dazzled crowds across the country in the 60s and 70s.

This, lack of culture, was Saroha’s first observation when he came from Delhi to study at the Jaipur Engineering College and Research Center (JECRC) in 2014. “Even in college there wasn’t a team,” he says. So, he gathered a group of football crazy students and formed one.

However, no one imagined that the post-lecture casual matches would turn into something serious, especially after the frequency of those games decreased during the final year, when campus placements were just around the corner.

Saroha, who wanted to manage sports, reluctantly accepted a job offer from an infra firm based in Gurgaon at the insistence of his family. “But it was very disappointing,” he says. “You can imagine the life of a just-graduate engineer trainee. No football… the desperation reached such an extent that one day I started crying in front of my mother.’

After six months, Saroha quit her job, left Delhi and returned to Jaipur, where she started a sports apparel company with a friend that supplied kits to local football teams in Rajasthan.

One of their clients was AU Rajasthan FC, now renamed Rajasthan Perfect, which kept its hopes of competing in the second division of the I-League alive. In 2018, an AU Rajasthan official approached Saroha with a request to field a team in the state league the following year.

“They were falling down one by one to meet the minimum criteria – without eight teams, they could not conduct the state league. And if that tournament did not take place, a club from Rajasthan would join the I-League. Would not be eligible to compete in the second division,” says Saroha.

At first, the then 23-year-old thought of forming a team to compete in the Rajasthan League. But after much persuasion, he agreed.

“I revived some of my contacts with JECRC FC and brought in some players from there. The rest we got from other parts of the state. It was strange. AU Rajasthan had coaches with A and B licenses… I was just gathering everyone on relation,” says Saroha. “I couldn’t even afford to pay anyone, but as long as their food and accommodation were taken care of, the players were more than happy to participate.”

The JECRC FC team consisted of teachers, physical trainers and students. And, the team that was just to score numbers, defeated the professional organization that was to become the AU Rajasthan 2019 Rajasthan League champions and become the state’s entry for the I-League Second Division.

“All of a sudden, I was in a foreign field,” says Saroha, who had only ‘managed’ his college team before. “I knew what the second division was, but I had no idea about the rules. I downloaded all the documents and educated myself,” he says. But it was all too heavy and that year, the club passed the second division. “We weren’t ready for that.”

In 2020, when the football world, like the rest of the planet, came to a standstill due to the pandemic, Saroha made sure he was ready for the next season. He first made two of his friends – Rajat Mishra, an entrepreneur and Swapnil Dhaka, a footballer – ‘co-founders’ of the club. The trio changed the name of JECRC FC to Rajasthan United, then tied up with an international school in Bhilwara to set up a residential academy and start looking for young players from across Rajasthan.

When the State League returned in July 2021, their situation was better than before. But Rajasthan United finished second behind another state heavyweight, Zinc, who entered the second division of the I-League by virtue of being the champion.

Zinc, however, was unable to meet the All India Football Federation’s licensing criteria, which made them ineligible to compete. As a result, Rajasthan United, who were at the forefront of the queue, got stuck. “On August 30, we got to know that we are going for the qualifiers. And 31 was the last day to register the players,” says Saroha.

The club’s chief executive Dinesh Negi, three co-founders and coach Vikrant Sharma started the conversation at a brisk pace. “We signed about a dozen players in a short span of time. In fact, the registration of our centre-back Gurmukh Singh was completed at 11.59 pm, a minute before the deadline! Saroha says.

His campaign was also Touch and Go.

Shoes whose cost is 500. Is

When Rajasthan United landed in Bangalore, where the I-League Second Division was held, earlier this month, not many gave Rajasthan United a chance. Also, after their first game against Renith FC of Shillong, where they led 3–0, but almost threw away the lead before winning 3–2.

Says Saroha, “Nobody expected us to do much after that match. “We were a team with players who were together for a few weeks, while others had been training for months and had even participated in a few tournaments. Some of our players were playing with Rs 500 shoes. There was a mismatch.’

But coach Sharma, who plays for Goa legends Dempo and Churchill Brothers, ensured that his team remained unbeaten throughout the tournament and crucial victories over Delhi and Bhopal’s Madan Maharaj put them in pole position to qualify for the I-League. brought it.

In the final match, Rajasthan needed to avoid a loss against Mumbai’s Kenkre FC, who had to win to qualify. On Saturday afternoon, according to a film script, goalkeeper Vishal Jun, after a forgettable start to the campaign, put up a scintillating performance as Rajasthan held on to a goalless draw to qualify for the I-League.

“It’s hard to describe what happened,” says Saroha, who started looking for an investor for the I-League. “It was all just for fun.”

But now, his team has helped Indian football conquer a new frontier: Rajasthan.