Speaking to Eastern Panorama during his recent homecoming to Sekmai village, 20 kms north of Imphal, Renedy lamented, “It is sad that none of the premier football clubs in India have a world class football field. In Europe alone, every club has around 4 to 5 world class football fields, amazing fitness centres, dressing rooms and much more. And these things are considered basic infrastructure there and are essential for every player to excel,” the 31 year old East Bengal star added.
Giving credit to the national team Coach Bob Houghton for India’s entry into the 2011 AFC Asian Cup in Qatar, he said, “We need a coach like him (Bob Houghton) for at least a decade.”
Besides the country which is yet to qualify for the World Cup in it’s 6 decade old football history needs a good number of football academies with adequate financial support to select and train the talented future footballers ‘continuously’, he opined.
India which ranks 133rd in the FIFA list made it to the Asian Cup after 26 years and the preparation for which will begin next month when the 30 member squad would be in Portugal for a 60 day training camp. Later the Indian team will also have a friendly match with the Thailand national team in Bangkok.
Renedy and five other footballers from Manipur - defenders- Irungbam Sukumar (27) of Mohan Bagan, Gouramangi (25) of Churchil Brothers, Moirangthem Govin (22) of East Bengal, midfielder James Lukram (29) of Mohan Bagan and striker Sushilkumar (21) of Mahindra United representing the entire North East of India will be part of this team.
Presently more than a hundred Manipuri footballers are playing in popular clubs across the country. According to All Manipur Football Association’s Secretary Ranjit Roy, all the 30 players selected for the national team would be refrained from participating in any match for their respective clubs or state during their 8 month contract period.
“All the players will be given 15 percent of the contract amount that they’ve been receiving from their respective clubs,” he said.

Sobhapati Samom