Stirring run from Wangoi FA to BFC

Suresh Singh Wangjam darts around the field, at full pelt. "Train with the same focus and intensity," he would say later, sitting on the sidelines at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium. It's something he picked up from Erik Paartalu, the senior Australian midfielder in the team. 

The stadium is quiet in the morning but the echoes of the matchday still linger. He can still hear the chants of 'Sureshaa... Sureshaa...' from a 20,000-strong crowd. "I knew they would do it but I didn't expect it so early, it's more confidence for me on the ground now," he says with a smile. 

The youngster talks with confidence, one he’s built facing the uncertainties that got him so far.

As a boy, he would make a bad imitation of a football by rolling paper, inside plastic and binding it by a black tape. Even as he helped his father load iron and cement onto a truck at their hardware store, the dream was football. With his family not keen to cater to their son's footballing passion, he played local tournaments, to make money so that he can join Wangoi Football Association to train.

In the end, they relented and Wangjam fluttered his wings and soared. So high that he became one among the first from the country to play a FIFA World Cup, the U-17 tournament in 2017. He remembers seeing his parents at the stadium as the team bus pulled in for the World Cup and admits to tearing up. He remembers the roar of the crowd as he walked onto the pitch after all those years of toil to ensure he was there for that moment alongside his friend and fellow midfielder Amarjit Singh Kiyam.

Wangjam was with the national camp for three years, before the World Cup. There were players coming in all the time as the AIFF scoutd for the best young talents in the country. It was kill or be killed.

"Everyday was on a trial because until they announced the final squad we didn't know (who made it). We were working hard for so long, so many of us, playing all over the world against teams older than us for that chance," he recalls.

The midfielder then spent two years with the Indian Arrows before making his move to BFC. In the AIFF’s development team, “there was no pressure”, admits Suresh, “I knew he would play”. 

But in a team filled with Indian internationals and foreign players, it was going to be a dogfight at BFC. He was ready for it. So he trudged over to Bengaluru, an alien setting. 

An insider tells the tale of a young man driven by desire and fueled by his friend Amarjit’s ascension to the national team. Wangjam knew, there was an opportunity. He also knew he had to learn and improve. 

"I want to play for the national team. Amarjit and I have played 5-6 years together. I'm happy he is in the national team but I also want to play. If Narender (Gahlot) or Amarjit can, then I can  too," he says.

At the Garden City club, gone were the days of KFC after a match. Not under Sunil Chhetri's watch. He asked Paartalu’s help to work on the long balls. The big Aussie was all smiles as Wagjam picked up his only assist of the season with a long ball to Deshorn Brown in Kerala.

In Dimas Delgado and Eugeneson Lyngdoh, he found helpful teachers. The former refers to him as "someone I can trust to have my back in the game because he runs so much". The analyst's room became his place of learning. 

After a lot of gym sessions and B team appearance in the early part of the season, one he feels was important to maintaining his ‘match rhythm’, he got his first start in the ISL against Odisha FC at home and since then he has been a permanent fixture in the team. Trusted to hustle and harry, to fill in different positions and often tasked to mark the most potent weapon of the opposition. He has been a coach’s dream. In a season stained by the untimely exit from the AFC Cup, Wangjam has been the brightest spark. 

"You can put him in different situations because he understands the game and knows what different positions demand," BFC coach Carles Cuadrat once said about him. 

And now he has the stage, as one of the first names on the team sheet as the club fights for the title. He did his part in the semifinal first leg against ATK, playing multiple positions and keeping Michael Soosairaj, ATK's prancing attacking wing back, quiet. The second round now awaits and the bright lights don’t faze the Manipuri lad. 

"You can’t be a top player without knowing how to deal with pressure. BFC have won six titles in six years, the club is very demanding. It's my first ISL season and I have the opportunity to reach the final," he says. 

Wangjam is ready.