Put Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub in any role and he owns it — yet he doesn’t map out wins or losses, he tells mid-day. It’s been a packed year: he opened with the Abhishek Bachchan-starrer Kaalidhar Laapata, followed by Chandan Arora’s Kanneda, and Criminal Justice: A Family Matter with Pankaj Tripathi. Now, as the year closes, he returns as a coach in SonyLIV’s Real Kashmir Football Club. Still close with the cast and crew a year on, Ayyub recalls meeting Shamim Meraj — the man who inspired his role, explains why sports stories matter, and how the series weaves Kashmir’s socio-political reality into its theme.

Excerpts from the interview.