At 36, FC Goa’s Igor Angulo is ready for a first

Spanish forward keen on ISL and Asian Champions League challenge after successful seasons in Poland’s top tier.

One of the flipsides of living in a bio-secure bubble is that you see way too much of each other. “…The same people, the same place, the same rooms,” said West Indies Test captain Jason Holder after the England tour where for almost two months the teams were isolated from the world.

File image of Igor Angulo. (File)

The Indian Super League (ISL), scheduled to start in November in Goa, will keep players confined for longer. Owen Coyle, Jamshedpur FC’s new coach, said he would be scouting for “team players” --- those who can spend a lot of time with each other in a closed environment.

“It is gonna be very strange,” said FC Goa’s new signing Igor Angulo, peering into his camera in this Zoom roundtable. Having played in the Polish top tier till last month, the Spanish forward from Bilbao spoke from experience. “It can affect you mentally. At the beginning (in Poland) it was difficult when we were two months at home. When we resumed training and then games, it was strange to see no one when we stepped out of the team bus. No fans, no journalists,” said the striker who was the league’s top scorer in 2018-19 with 24 goals in 37 games.

The top tier of Poland’s league, Ekstraklasa, was suspended in March to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus and resumed on May 29 behind closed doors. The league ended on July 19 exactly a year after it began. In 24 games for Gornik Zabrze, Angulo, 36, scored 12 goals this term. He was the second highest scorer in Poland in 2017-18.

Having his family around helped, said Angulo. They will be here as well, wife Argi and 11-month daughter Chloe, when Angulo comes for the pre-season possibly in September. “Even if it is empty, we will be playing in our stadium so that is important. We will be more comfortable than other clubs,” he said, listing reigning champions ATK, FC Goa and Bengaluru FC as teams to watch out for.

Prior to the “new challenge” of traveling outside Europe --- having started with Athletic Bilbao, he has played for Cannes, clubs in Cyprus and Greece before spending the last four seasons in Poland --- Angulo said he spoke to many people. It wasn’t hard because FC Goa have a strong Spanish connection. Along with Jorge Ortiz, Ivan Garrido and Edu Bedia, Angulo is the fourth Spaniard on the roster with the possibility of Ferran Corrominas being the fifth if, at 37, he stays for a fourth season. There are two Spaniards in the coaching staff now.

“Before signing, I spoke to the (new) coach (Juan Ferrando). The philosophy of the coach and the club is linked with mine. We like to keep the ball on the ground and attack.” That and the chance of playing the Asian Champions League in 2021 were the strongest points for joining FC Goa, said.

The other coach he spoke to was Kibu Vicuna, the Spaniard who coached Mohun Bagan to the I-League title. “I spoke to him about life in India, food. But I didn’t know he had joined Kerala,” said Angulo. After Mohun Bagan merged with ISL champions ATK,Vicuna joined Kerala Blasters.

Angulo grew up in Bilbao and calls it home. Naming Julen Guerrero and Joseba Etxeberria as Athletic Bilbao idols, Angulo said he joined the club as a 10-year-old and came through the ranks to the first team, a process which included playing with Corominas and Bengaluru FC’s Dimas Delgado in the under-12, under-16 and under-21 teams.

Athletic are an aberration because they only recruit players from the Basque region where they are based. Founded in 1898, Athletic have won La Liga, Copa del Rey and Super Cup and are also among the three La Liga clubs which has never been relegated, the others being Real Madrid and Barcelona. Last season, they finished 11th.

“The key I think is always focusing on their academy,” said Angulo. “When I joined, I was made to feel like a professional. They had good training fields, good doctors; it was like a big school for all of us.”

Bilbao is not far from Barcelona in northern Spain and a number of players from the Basque region have played for FC Barcelona, who will now have to “renovate.” Angulo said it is difficult to predict whether Ronald Koeman can turn the club around but it was after mentioning that “he wasn’t very successful at Valencia.”