FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 | 'Saw Manipur women's football potential', says Ex-Mohun Bagan coach Steve Darby

Steve Darby was in Sydney for the Football Writers' Festival. (Photo by Annesha Ghosh)

A former FA Youth player, Englishman Steve Darby has had a long career as a football coach. He was at the helm of the coaching staff of the men’s teams of Laos, Thailand, Fiji, and Vietnam Women and Australian Women, as well as many a club side in Bahrain, Australia, Singapore and India. He is also a former analyst and expert commentator with ESPN. On the sidelines of the recently concluded 2023 Football Writers' Festival in Sydney, the Liverpool-based 68-year-old sat down for a candid conversation with Moneycontrol.com. Excerpts:

You spent about 18 years in Australia, during which you also coached the women’s national football team between 1989 and 1991. What, in your view, could be the legacy of the 2023 Women’s Football Word Cup?

Often, they have this legacy document which is full of clichés and some wonderful phrases and nothing happens. For me, legacy has two components. One, if the federations and players make enough money to actually do things, because money matters, let's be honest. Because, if nothing else, money can give facilities and equipment and education and create opportunities for both players and female coaches.

That's one side. But the other side, to me, the legacy is that we will develop female role models. So little girls can say, “I can be like Australia’s Mary Fowler. I can be England’s Mary Earps. I don't have to be Beckham or Ronaldo." That to me will be the ultimate legacy, as a former coach who’s back in Australia after 20 years.

Your coaching career took you far and wide, including my hometown, Kolkata, in India where you worked with Mohun Bagan FC.

(Smiles) It sure did.

The very mention of the name seems to have brought back a flood of memories. How do you look back on that stint in Kolkata back in 2011 which lasted just three months?

I'll say, with hilarity, because if not, I'd cut my wrists (laughs): It's probably the first club that I wasn't happy at. Every place I've been in in the world, I've been happy. There was a culture fear within the club. The players were great, but they were petrified of the administration. (An email sent to the Mohun Bagan FC on Tuesday remained unanswered at the time of publishing; the interview will be updated with their response.)

I found out later, after I resigned, that among the people who appointed me, there was a block of the committee who didn't want me anyway; they wanted someone who they could manipulate. I, obviously, couldn't be manipulated. People who brought me in wanted me because I couldn't be manipulated.

There were things going on around me which I just found unbelievable. There were players who were not good enough but were there because of their connections to other committee members or to sponsors. There were people being treated almost like slaves, which I felt was wrong. I witnessed the caste system, which I had never seen until then but heard about. I learned so many things non-football-wise.

I remember I never saw any female toilets there at the time. And I know when Baichung Bhutia played there – Baichung is a good lad – he had fought very hard to get a female toilet in the tent. And Baichung had the power, political power - because he was great player - to win and I am glad he did win that battle. So, I would say, all in all, Mohun was an education for me.

About three years later you were roped in by the Ranbir Kapoor-co-owned Mumbai City FC at the Indian Super League (ISL) as an assistant coach. What was that experience like?

When I went to Mumbai, the experience was the opposite. Mumbai, in the ISL, was run like a top-class professional club. They had strong, independent owners, including Ranbir Kapoor. He has an accountant who ran the money side, scrupulously honest. We had an administrator, three or four physios, doctors, and logistics people. Everything was done just as it should be. And I noticed that in all the other ISL clubs as well.

The structure that was set up to run the league was light years ahead and the players were loving it. I had moved across from Mohun, so I told Mumbai we ought to get good, honest players like Syed Rahim Nabi and Jewel Raja, and trust them to do a top job. So, we got some of them. They were loving it. Life was great there.

I came across some great athletes (Manipur women's football), superb shape, some of the best six packs I have ever seen, hard as nails and, most of all, they could play, and play bloody well.

I knew nothing about Indian women's football when I went there for first time, for my Mohun assignment. Neither then nor during my time at Mumbai, did I see many benefactors for the women’s game in the country. But when I went to Manipur – it was around 2013-14 – and I was there to coach the boys' youth teams, to put them through development programs and get them prepared to go on to make professional careers – one of my coaches was a female, Kalba Devi.

She said, “Sunday was a day-off. Would you come and do a session with the girls?” I had worked with girls in Vietnam, so I said yes right away. I didn't know what to expect and, I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting a high level because my perception of women’s football in India didn’t exist at the time.

But, I was wrong. To my surprise, I came across some great athletes, superb shape, some of the best six packs I have ever seen, hard as nails and, most of all, they could play, and play bloody well. One of them (Ngangom Bala Devi), has since gone on to play for the Rangers FC (in Scotland). The agent who brought me to Manipur – Anuj Kichlu – is based in Kolkata and he also went on to become Devi’s representative. He saw the value of female players and he got her to play abroad. Fantastic. And that's how it starts. I saw a lot of potential in women’s football in Manipur.

What were your observations regarding how women’s football was perceived in Manipur?

I felt a good number of these Manipur female players could have played abroad. But it was that culture again: they weren't leaving their families. There was that dreaded culture of, ‘You are a woman and you’re going to get married.’ I am sure things have changed for the better in the past few years, but at the time, I wish these gifted, strong women footballers had more opportunities.

I couldn't change that societal rule; all I can do is set my own values and standards. I try not to be judgmental on those things because every country has its own norms and culture. I mean, I'm sure other people would think I'm stupid for disliking the caste system but so much of Indian women’s football at the time was being held back purely by societal norms and pressures put on women.

Your coaching stints in India also landed you an unlikely job in the Hindi film industry.

(Laughs) I've been in India a couple of times – a mixture of coaching clubs in the I-League and the ISL – and also working for the state government of Manipur. So, I got to know a number of people. And, one day, I got a phone call one from an agent associated with a Bollywood production house of (Karan) Johar. The agent asked if I would “choreograph” the football scenes for the Hindi movie, Student of the Year.

I thought it was a trip to India. But it was a trip to Bangkok because it was filmed in Bangkok. We had to work on the football side of it.

Choreographing football is not easy for lads who’ve never played. I'm sure if those would have been cricket scenes, it would have been better for the lads, but these lads were not footballers.

It was an eye-opener to me about how much money is in Bollywood, how hard these actors work and how important it is to make it as a Bollywood actor for (these) males and females.

Steve Darby shakes a leg with Babul Supriyo. (Photo courtesy: Steve Darby)

Beyond the pitch, do you have any memories of your time in India that you look back on fondly?

Well, I fell in love with Bollywood films (laughs). I saw the Bodyguard (2011) when I was in the I-League. The Khan – Salman Khan? – was quite good, but the other Khan, Shah Rukh, I came to know later how big he is. Everybody loves Shah Rukh, don’t they?

And, I loved the Indian food. It was so different to the Indian food you get in England or in multicultural Liverpool. And I discovered later I am not the only outsider, or, “foreigner”, as they say in India, who feels this way about Indian food in India and abroad. I loved the roti and dal in particular; (I) did try the curries, too, some of them almost had my eyes pop out (laughs), but I loved the cuisine.

And, I can’t forget I danced with Bollywood superstar Ranbir Kapoor.

Can you tell me more about that?

I shocked a few of my Indian mates when I told them I danced with Ranbir (laughs). Culturally, men don’t dance together in England; it just wouldn't happen. I was with Mumbai at the time, and it was, probably, at the (Mahalaxmi) Race Course. Music went on, all the foreigners sat down, every Indian footballer got up, and up got Ranbir. He grabbed me and made me dance with him. It was fun, but I'll be honest, I was embarrassed (laughs).

A similar thing had happened to me in Calcutta. I was introduced in a large auditorium by a Bollywood star again, and I had to do a Bollywood dance with him on the stage. To be honest, I was no longer a white guy; I was bright red out of embarrassment (laughs).

Even in my job, I realized that it required me to adapt to the culture. You're not going to beat the culture. I see so many foreigners say, “We do this because we are right.” That's rubbish. Yeah, you do what you do in the country you're in; yes, that's the first thing but you have to adapt and get the best out of that culture.

In your biography, ‘The Itinerant Coach - The Footballing Life and Times of Steve Darby’ (2021), you dive deep into how important a role adapting to a country’s culture can play in determining the success of any coach.

Yes, basically, the best advice I was given in this regard was from a Malaysian guy. A few months of my being in Malaysia, he told me, “Steve, you’ve got to learn to be like bamboo,” which meant absolutely nothing to me because you don't get bamboo in Anfield (in Liverpool)! So, I said, “What do you mean?” He explained, “You've got to learn to bend in the wind like bamboo, and not snap.”

What he meant was sometimes you're not going to win, for strange reasons. And you got to learn when to say, “Okay, I ain't gonna win,” and walk away. I always use the example of this international striker who didn't come to training one day; he rang me up because he had to go shopping with his mom. He said, “You can fine me, you can drop me. But if my mom says I'm going shopping, that’s it.” I spoke to other senior players about this and they said, “Coach, it’s happened with me. If that’s what happens with me again and my mom said so, I'm sorry, I would have to do the same thing.” That’s because it was the cultural aspect of that nation. It was like a “mom rule” in Malaysia. What’s a norm in Malaysia might not be one in Australia or India, so you’ve got adapt. That’s got to be one of your key skills as a coach, no matter where in the world you are working.

Do you have any trips to India lined up?

None at the moment.

Would you take up any coaching or consultancy roles in men’s or women’s football in India if any such opportunities present themselves again?

To me, if it’s football – that’s all that matters. Is the contract okay? If yes, I would take it. I would love to work as much in women’s football as I would in men’s.