Ideas of India 2025: Leander Paes was amongst several personalities present at the Ideas of India 2025 summit, and speaking in an exclusive conversation with ABP Live, the Tennis legend revealed that his father laughed at him for choosing Tennis.
“When I returned to Calcutta, my father was furious, stating that I had given up on my dreams and what I do now. I saw my uncle’s photo, which had three tennis racquets and I said tennis, to which my father laughed for about 6 minutes,” said Leander Paes.
Speaking during the Summit, Leander Paes also stated that he almost ended up being a footballer at FC Barcelona, and that, he left his football career after being asked to ‘drop the Indian passport’.
Here’s what he said:
“Football was my passion (because of the genetics from parents). I was often scolded in school by my teachers, as I always had a football at my feat in the classroom, and would do all kinds of moves.”
“When I was 11 years old, New York brought a football team to India (New York Cosmos). They came to Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Pele came to play at the big stadium. I was a ballboy at the match, and I was constantly collecting and throwing the ball back in the field. This made me bore, and so at the end of the 2nd half, when the ball came, instead of throwing it back, I collected it on my chest, juggled it 16-17, and headed it back to Mr. Pele.”
“He looked at me and said ‘after match I see you’, so I thought I was in trouble, and after the match, Mr. Pele came along with Marco Van Basten (former Dutch legend), and we did a little Tiki-Taka for about 15 minutes.”
“Seeing my skills, they selected me for the junior team of Dutch giants, PSV Eindhoven. So I went and there I realised, that a Calcutta boy, who plays cricket and football bare-footed in the gully, was presented with gear, especially football boots.”
“After about 6 weeks, FC Barcelona came calling, and at the camp, they ran the trials, which included all the kids from the academy. After 2 days, they shifted me to the junior programme. I lived there for 7 months, and after 7 months, they confirmed that I will be part of the Playing XI of their U-17 side. I was only 11 years old back then.”
“But they had only criteria, that I had to give up my Indian passport, to which I asked ‘why’. The coach replied that ‘if we pump-in million dollars into your coaching, training, your diet, fitness, your mental training, then we can’t have you play for another country, you have to play for Spain, for FC Barcelona’.”
“So like a good Indian boy, I replied that I had to go and ask my parents about this. So when I was departing the next morning at 05:30 a.m., the coach said ‘I know you are not coming back’.”
“So I asked ‘why are you saying so’. To this, the coach said ‘you are not leaving even a single shirt, or even your toothbrush behind, and that, no 11-year-old packs his bag so well. If you leave Barcelona today, give up football, because we are the number 1 academy in the world.”
