In professional sport, to stand still is to go backwards. Bengaluru FC may have won the I-League last season, but no squad is beyond improvement. BFC signed four new players in the summer, two of whom have hit the ground running. Eugeneson Lyngdoh played a vital role in BFC’s Federation Cup win earlier this month, scoring in the semi-final and winning a penalty in the final. The 28-year-old central midfielder was signed from Rangdajied United, whom he helped beat the drop last season. Moving from a small club to a champion team can be overawing, but Lyngdoh has slotted in seamlessly.
“When you move to a different club there is always a lot of pressure and you have to prove yourself. I just came here to play football and let the football speak for itself. I feel happy that it is working out and I want to give even more,” he says.
A hard-working, two-footed player, Lyngdoh greatly impressed the BFC head coach Ashley Westwood last season. “Every player wants to play for the champions and when the coach called me and told me he wanted me, I was thrilled. No one had actually called me before and when he did I was over the moon. I didn't show anyone that I was excited, though. I thought about it and made my decision to come here knowing that it would be for the betterment of my playing career,” he says.
Westwood is all praise for his new midfielder. “He is a really good footballer. He is really fit now. He has had five or six months to put in the fitness work that he has not managed to have before. Technically, he is a good box to box midfielder. He can tackle, he can score goals. At the minute, he looks like a real good all-round midfielder,” the Englishman says.
“It has been great and really enjoyable so far,” Lyngdoh gushes. “There is a lot of difference here from other clubs. Here it is all very systematic and professional and organised.” Lyngdoh, a native of Meghalaya, spent three seasons with Shillong Lajong, working under the current BFC assistant coach Pradhyum Reddy.
He also turned out for Ar-Hima (later Rangdajied), where his father is the club President. Lyngdoh wasn't serious about a career in football until the middle of his Electronics and Telecommunication engineering course, when too many papers in arrears forced him to drop a year. “I quit the course in the third year to play football. When I had to stay a semester down because of my back papers, I started playing for Ar Hima in Shillong. The club ended up getting promoted to the second division I-League and it went from there.”
Lyngdoh has links with Bengaluru too, having spent five years at Bishop Cotton Boys School here. “I always enjoyed being here and I always wanted to come back so it was not a hard decision to make.”
Udanta Kumam Singh, a fiendishly quick 18-year-old striker has had his coaches and team-mates raving about his pace for some time now. Udanta was at the vanguard of Tata Football Academy's charge to the U-19 I-League title last season, finishing the competition's top-scorer with nine goals. He convinced Westwood after a friendly game with BFC, a fixture – it later transpired – that was arranged with the purpose of scouting him. “We have worked really well with him for the last five months. We have increased his pace and his overall tactical awareness. He has got electric pace and he'll show this season what a player he's going to be,” says Westwood.
An India under-19 international, Udanta is a nephew of Samson Singh, the former Air India and Salgaocar player. “I am very excited that I have come to a professional team,” he says. “There are a lot of experienced players here and this club has a lot of good players. I hope that I can play well this season and make a mark for myself.” Udanta is by definition a striker, but has often been deployed on the right wing at BFC. “When I first started on the right it was a bit confusing but now I have got a hang of the position,” he says.
Udanta may not say much, but his presence, like that of Lyngdoh's, is sure to be felt on the pitch.
