Growing up next to an all-purpose sports facility — the epicentre of our young lives in Rajkot’s railway colony in the 1980s — we had our own football heroes. There was Rafiq Baloch, a strapping Siddi boy, with tree-trunk legs. Parsottam, endearingly called Pasiyo, was a fearless defender with goal-scoring ambitions. And the delightful Ahmed, a compulsive dribbler, loved dodging goalkeepers and tapping the ball in the goal. They all played for our team — the modestly named Jagjivan Ram Railway Institute. We rarely won the local league since other sides from outside our township — Young Challengers Club and Youth Club — were more consistent but less watchable. For context, we were Rajkot’s Liverpool. Back in the day, our exposure to the world of football was primarily through the written word. Englishman Brian Glanville, the finest football writer ever, was our guide. He took us to iconic stadiums around the world, informed us about the ball skills of greats and sparked our young minds to imagine what they did on fields, oceans away. His …