Kolkata: It is hard enough to prepare for your first Kolkata derby at a new club. Especially if, ahead of the biggest match in Indian club football, you have moved between the archrivals. Add a FIFA ruling, court cases, the possibility of severe sanctions that could include a ban and a fine and the gig’s difficulty quotient gets multiplied several times.
For Anwar Ali, though, it will have to be all in a day’s work. The central defender is likely to be one of the first names East Bengal’s stand-in Bino George pencils in ahead of Saturday’s Indian Super League (ISL) match against Mohun Bagan Super Giant, the season’s first Kolkata derby.
Exactly how good Ali is, and why the tug-o-war over him, can be gauged by this comment from Igor Stimac. “(He) is one of the best centre-backs in Asia,” said the former India coach and a centre-back of repute in his time. This was in August 2023. Manolo Marquez, who replaced Stimac, has also shown his faith in Ali by using him in two of his three matches for India. Ali’s first start for India, against Syria, in 24-25 was also his first competitive match in 90 days. The saturnine Antonio Lopez Habas, also ISL’s most successful coach, may have rushed Ali’s return from injury in a Kolkata derby last term leading to the player breaking down again.
So, it fit that questions about Ali would be directed at Mohun Bagan Super Giant coach Jose Molina. And to George at separate press conferences here on Friday. Molina said he preferred looking at East Bengal “who, like us, have really good players” and not any individual.
Ali and Hector Yuste, East Bengal’s likely inner defence pairing, know their responsibility, said George. “They will give of their best.”
Yuste has also moved from Mohun Bagan but only after he was released by the league shield winners.
But scrutiny of the kind that where every move you make in a derby is analysed threadbare is not the only thing Ali is dealing with. In fact, it may not even be the most important thing.
Uncertainty of a career being interrupted again, is. It has been that way since Ali joined East Bengal in the summer on a five-year deal, the decision needing legal intervention for him to do what he does best: play football.
At the bottom of the standings with four defeats in four matches that is what East Bengal would want their central defender to do: play football without distractions.
“We don’t talk about such things in the changing room. That is the club’s job,” said Saul Crespo. The East Bengal midfielder also said he was sure Ali would be “100 per cent focused.”
For 90 minutes and some, at Salt Lake stadium, Mohun Bagan fans would hope Crespo is wrong. Their grouse is that the central defender had almost everything going at Mohun Bagan who are fourth in ISL11. Almost because the 24-year-old had wanted his loan deal to be made permanent. Bagan refused and Ali cited a FIFA ruling ending long-term loans by 2025 to justify ending the deal. Ali’s loan with Bagan was till 2027.
At which point, enter All India Football Federation (AIFF) with whom Ali had had a legal battle earlier. There has been no communication from AIFF as to why in 2023 it approved the loan after FIFA had said all such deals must not exceed one year after 2025.
Yet, when Ali and Mohun Bagan took their respective complaints to AIFF’s Players’ Status Committee (PSC), it accepted Ali’s plea to terminate the contract but ruled it was without just cause. So, on September 10, one day after he had returned to competitive football, Ali was banned for four months. Mohun Bagan also needed to be compensated ₹12.9 crore for the breach, PSC’s verdict said.
Ali, Delhi FC who had loaned him to Bagan, and East Bengal moved the Delhi High Court. The court ordered a review by the AIFF committee and allowed Ali to play. Which he has for East Bengal and India. But with the knowledge that it could all go south any moment.
On Friday, at a crowded press conference room at Bagan, Subhasish Bose drew a deep breath when asked how a player can deal with a situation this complicated and be ready for the derby.
“Each player will deal with this differently,” said the Mohun Bagan captain and a club supporter. “But I think it is important to shut out the noise and focus on the pitch.”
A week before the derby Bose and Ali were shoring up India’s backline against Vietnam. Ali pulled off a goalline save late in the match to ensure the scoreline stayed 1-1 against a team ranked higher than India. It was the first time in 2024 that India did not lose to a higher-ranked team.
Having been stopped from playing by AIFF on health grounds just when it seemed his career would take off after the 2017 under-17 World Cup, Ali knows what being yanked off football can feel like. This was in 2019. Soon after Covid-19 shut down the world.
“I was in a state of shock. At that time, I had given up,” he told Al Jazeera in 2022. That was the year he returned to ISL after moving court against AIFF which relented and let Ali play if he gave an affidavit that he was playing at his own risk.
It was Delhi FC and the club’s owner Ranjit Bajaj who had stood by the player from Punjab when all seemed lost. Bajaj also helped him get medical advice that said his heart condition would not prevent him from playing in the Premier League. After AIFF greenlit his return, Ali played for Delhi FC before FC Goa signed him on loan in the 2022. East Bengal is his first permanent deal in ISL, one where he is reported to be paid ₹3 crore annually. But for Ali, happy days are not exactly around the corner.
