For centuries, poets, scholars and travelers revealed their unrecognized passions to distant India. This place, its seas and the mystery that it hides, gives birth to ideal and unworthy lovers, hopes that are reborn from the ashes and immediately go out, contrasts that transfer from heaven to hell.

In a country of nearly 1.4 billion people, football has never been a priority. But as the country’s economy took off, the opening of the world’s most popular sport was deemed necessary.

Zico, Alessandro Del Piero, David Trezeguet, Robert Pires, Nicolas Anelka, Bruno Cirillo, Kostas Katsouranis, Alexandros Yorvas, Adrian Mutu, Florentin Malouda, Dimitar Berbatov, Robbie Keane and Facundo Pereira were among the first football…sailors who passed on their knowledge, themselves who put an end to their careers, an end without special demands.

Last summer, a Greek doubted whether he should make a long journey. However, the dramatic situations that he experienced in the Super League 2 championship did not leave him much space. He took a risk and paid off completely.

OUR Staikos Vergetisafter his success on the bench Astera Tripoli, whom he led to the group stage of a European tournament (Europa League, 2014-15) for the first time in his history, he again desperately asked for distinction. Regain lost confidence in your coaching value. And in India he succeeded. He accepted an offer from the Greek sports director of RoundGlass Punjab FC, Nikos Topoliati, led an I-league (2nd division) team, won the league with an unbeaten streak and celebrated his promotion to the elite last Sunday. (I-Superleague).

We found him shortly before the last match with TRAU FC, where a fiesta for the title was also arranged. He told us about his experience, and you could tell by the tone of his voice that he had regained his lost confidence.

When dreams become reality 🏆💫#RGPFC #PunjabYesJosh #HeroILeague #Champions pic.twitter.com/SRqhFdnxq0

— RoundGlass Punjab FC (@RGPunjabFC) March 13, 2023

“I accepted the offer last summer. Nikos Topoliatis, who has experience from Olympiacos academies, has taken over all the planning for the team over the last three years. So he explained the project to me and gave me a deadline to answer it. It was a very new team as it was founded in 2019 through a purchase from a sponsor company. It is a giant company that also has a hockey division which is the most popular sport in the country. I will not hide from you that I hesitated mainly because of the distance, the unknown and the fact that I would have to leave my family. However, the situations I experienced in Greece and in Super League 2 (including Doxa Drama, Niki Volos, Ierapetra) will not hide from you that they were dramatic. So I made the decision to try something different in my career that would give it new motivation.”

Congratulations @RGPunjabFC to win #HeroILeague 🏆 and become the first club to be promoted to Hero @IndSuperLeague 🙌#indianfootball ⚽ pic.twitter.com/btw0y5ccw2

— Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) March 4, 2023

🏆 Champions! pic.twitter.com/zZEBNJkqO5

— RoundGlass Punjab FC (@RGPunjabFC) March 4, 2023

“Promotion was not an end in itself. The management really wanted the team to take the above step, but even if they had not won the division, they would not have eluded their plans. We have moved very carefully in the transfer sector as the teams here are based on an Indian element as only three foreigners and one Asian are allowed. There are 12 teams in the league and only the champion advances. We started in early September with three wins and a draw in the first four games, a record that gave us momentum to move forward and kept us at the top of the standings. Then we were left to claim the first place with another team, but with an amazing cleavage in which we went unbeaten ten matches with eight wins and two draws and mathematically secured the title.

Perfect 1️⃣0️⃣#RGPFC #PunjabYesJosh #HeroILeague pic.twitter.com/IXjfmb9wj8

— RoundGlass Punjab FC (@RGPunjabFC) March 9, 2023

A real MVP! #StaikosVergetis 🙌🏆#RGPFC #PunjabYesJosh #HeroILeague pic.twitter.com/NJZxyD0yCZ

— RoundGlass Punjab FC (@RGPunjabFC) March 5, 2023

– Football here is still in its infancy. However, it develops correctly, and this is the most important thing. All clubs attach great importance to their academies and training centers, in the Super League big sponsors sponsor clubs and invest. However, the most important thing for me is that cricket is gradually gaining popularity among young people. The stadiums are filled with young people who are in orgasm from football. It is loved, practiced, and it does not go unnoticed in a rapidly developing country with a population of over a billion. I believe that in a few years this will be the first sport in the country and soon we will see the Indian team reach the final of the World Cup.

-They are talented players. They are quite disciplined, respectful and receptive people, and this helps you get your message across to them. They like attacking football, there are many phases in the games, there are transitions, although tactical of course, they still lag behind European football. The first and most difficult concern that arose for me and my partners (they are all Greek) when we took the team was to get them to make faster and more correct decisions in their game. In the beginning and especially before Christmas, we fought, I do not hide it, but their will brought good results after they accepted what we told them.

– In the coming days I will have a meeting with the administration to discuss the upcoming new year. I have a positive attitude towards my stay, as even in the difficult times that were, the management supported me. I want this journey of mine to continue. However, it is clear that we must set a higher bar as a criterion if we want to have a good course in the first category as well. There the level is higher, the stadiums are prettier, the budgets are bigger, foreign players really matter. Of course, ambitions aside, I am also a family man, I did not leave Greece to throw a black stone next to me. I could go back and work at the club again, but I don’t know when that will be.

-It is not easy. In deciding to come, you had to settle that all your 24 hours would be home-work, work-home. Punjab is located on the border with Pakistan and has a population of over 20 million people. Here you can truly feel the life of social inequality. In the same place where you are, you can see a lot of wealth, but also a lot of poverty. To see the palaces, but also the shacks. Our life is good, but sharpened by the group. We all live in an apartment building and take the bus to practice because it’s too dangerous to drive alone. There are no traffic lights on most roads, there are no rules of the road, and theft from people living in miserable conditions occurs daily.

– Of course, Apostolos Yannou, who had a player in Asteras Tripoli, and Dimitris Diamantakos, who is his teammate in Kerala, which plays in the first division, also play here. Other children also came here, if I remember correctly, they were Triadis, Sifnaios, some adapted and coped exceptionally well, others did not.

No, under no circumstances would I avoid it. Very interesting, all tasks are open. Expected title, European tickets, playoffs. It’s impressive to me that these are four competitors with such different racing profiles that finished so close in the regular season.