Me, Arunava, as an Indian Club Coach?

Over the years I have received many offers in football, some really interesting one's while others were more offtrack. And they have come from around the world - be it Europe, India, Dubai or even from the Caribbean and North America. But this one I am writing about will be a real highlight in my working career in football and maybe a one-time offer.

A few days ago a club in India, whom I will not name but know well, asked me for my opinion on a new coach that they wanted to appoint. Originally the discussion was about naming an Indian coach, but none of quality as I told them was free in the market. Then they wanted to look at options abroad, but soon realised that a quality foreign coach was out of their budget range. We came back to discussing Indian names, but again none seemed to work for them.

Then out of the blue the club officials asked me, why don't you take-up the role of chief coach in our club. I was stunned, surprised and honoured at the same time that I was asked the question as I have no official coaching degree to my name. When I asked them why, the officials told me, you understand football, have travelled and worked with teams and know the players; and that not only in India but also abroad.

I wanted to say directly no, but after some discussions decided to at least sleep over such a decision. The thoughts were, do I want to leave media and management to go into coaching? Would I be able to do it? Would I be working to my strengths or rather to my weaknesses? Loads of things went through my head, but in the end I decided against it. At least at the moment coaching isn't something which I would pursue and then as the head coach of a club.

Actually becoming a coach would have been another chapter in what I have done over the years in football, especially Indian football. But I have actually done some coaching work in the past besides playing. But forget just being a correspondent, commentator, expert on television and radio, writing for print, online and my blog. Then there have been the tasks of travelling with teams as liaison officer, press officer, translator and team manager. I've been consultant on football matters and early this year worked on a project about putting a professional I-league team together in Bangalore. And only recently I got the chance to play for the FC Bayern Munich Allstars against East Bengal Allstars in Kolkata.

But if I was asked about opportunities in the future to work to my strengths and skills I would rather be a team manager (director of sports), involvement in sports management or continue in broadcasting and media.

What I love about football is that I get to do so many different things. For me football surely is the beautiful game, but there are some things which I most probably shouldn't do...