Lobo Lobo and Euro 2025

Lobo Lobo my cable TV technician was pissed off when he came to my doorstepldquoLobo Lobo whatrsquos bugging yourdquo I askedldquoDikuna men do you watch de football Have you been watching Euro 2020rdquoldquoYes I saw Ronaldo remove the coke bottlesrdquoldquoArre Portugal wen dey came to Goa we should have aksed dem to stay back and train us men do some good Wot men bleddy men Dikuna men how it iz possible dat we are population of 1 point tree billion and we canrsquot produce a football team Chhe it is a damn shame ya Bleddy dere are tiny tiny countries dat have entered de knock out stage Arre bleedy dose blinking Welsh peepuls have a team in de knock out stage de Daneshellipdey had a fellow who had a cardiac arrest and yet dey make it And we donrsquot have 11 players who are world class shame shame poppy shamerdquoldquoWhat can I say Lobo Lobo we are a cricketloving nationrdquoldquoNo men enuff is enuff chhe so much footer being played now Bunkus donrsquot give me ole ole arguments men Dikuna lemme inform you Irsquom starting my own club My own footer clubrdquoldquoIrsquom guessing the plan would be to train young players to be ready to play for the nation in the futurerdquo I enquired optimisticallyldquoNo no men wot train chhe no chance My goal no pun intended is to playmdashme and my team we are planning to represent India Arrey you donrsquot know men Irsquom a expert footballer part of a winning team from de pastldquoWinning team Lobo Lobo which one Man U Chelsea Arsenal Salgaonkars Dempo Mohammedan SportingrdquoldquoGlaxordquoldquoGlaxordquoldquoYes Glaxo We lifted de cup in 1995rdquoldquoWhat cup was thatrdquoldquoUhmhellipit was a tournament for football teams of various industries in Mumbai in de rsquo90s Glaxo RCF Mahindras Pfizer etcrdquoldquoAnd uhm Lobo Lobo you uhm honestly think that a team of old fogies such as yourself who played for Glaxo in the rsquo90s can represent IndiardquoldquoHey hey Dikuna we were de best team of dat time not just in dis tournament but in de country Wot wot players we had wot wot skill men Initially I was part of de forward line You know like how de Spaniards had dat lsquoTiki Takarsquo formation we had a technique called lsquoDis Way Dat Wayrsquo So for us in de Glaxo team we foxed de opposition wid de lsquoDis Way Dat Wayrsquo techniquerdquoldquoCan you explain furtherrdquo I asked fascinatedldquoSee men we were four forwards strikers like we called ourselves LGBTmdashfour star players Lobo Gogoi Banerjee Thampi so we became LGBT How we played we would look dis way and pass de ball dat way de lsquoDis Way Dat Wayrsquo techniquehellipfully bluff de opposition No one knew who hadda ball we would dribble and score goal after goal men Dikuna I was de Maradona of my time den later dey needed me to be de defender so I became de goalie of de siderdquoldquoSo what are your plans now Lobo LobordquoldquoI plan to bring all my former teammates togedder train dem pep dem up and we shall qualify for de next Euro Cup and World Cup as IndiardquoldquoUhm Lobo Lobohellipyour uhm teammates must be quite uhm elderly by nowhellipmaybe a tad unfit compared to Messi Bale Mbappe Kreitzmann are young and quick on their feet how will you guys managerdquoldquoArre what is age men in fact Shoojit Sarkar is making a film on our team wid de focus on LGBTrdquoldquoIrsquom guessing the movie is being called lsquoDis Way Dat WayrsquordquoldquoNo men chhe hersquos naming it lsquoBend it like LoborsquordquoRahul daCunha is an adman theatre directorplaywright photographer and traveller Reach him at rahuldacunhamiddaycom