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Most important thing now is to win, no matter what: Jhingan
Sandesh Jhingan battles injuries and adjusts to a face mask while aiming for success with India's national football team in upcoming qualifiers.
Kolkata: Sandesh Jhingan’s tryst with the school of hard knocks continues, literally. The latest in a career that has seen him bounce back twice from anterior cruciate ligament injuries – the first kept him out for 13 months, the second 10 – was a cheekbone fracture that also needed surgery and almost a month away from football. Train too soon and the bone can break again, he was told.
The injury also meant that for the first time in 14 years as a professional, Jhingan needed adjusting to a face mask. “I was waiting for it (the mask) so badly… I wanted to play as soon as I can,” he said.
As the world knows from Kylian Mbappe in the Euros last year, a mask can limit vision, block sweat and be an “absolute horror”. For Jhingan, the experience – he played for FC Goa away to FC Istiklol in the Asian Champions League 2 on October 1 – has not been that bad.
“If you wear something new, it requires adjustment. But like everything, when you do it every day, it becomes a habit,” he said.
Does wearing one make him a target? “I don’t create unexpected scenarios in my mind. And, I say to myself, if it’s going to happen, it will. Even if I have a metal armour I am going to break something in my body.”
Which seemed the cue to change topic in the interview Jhingan, 32, was giving HT on a video call before India’s 2027 Asian Cup qualifier away to Singapore on Thursday. In 69 internationals, Jhingan has never played Singapore. Now he can do that twice in five days, matches that can make or mar the opportunity of a first for India – a hat-trick of continental appearances.
“They have never seen me play so I can be a surprise package,” Jhingan said with a laugh. “Whether you have played them before or not, it really doesn’t matter much. We played Hong Kong and it hardly looked like the Hong Kong we played in Kolkata in 2022. This time, they had players speaking in Spanish.”
Hong Kong setback
After the 0-1 defeat in Hong Kong in June that put India at the bottom of the four-team group that also has Bangladesh, Jhingan had asked the country to keep the faith. “It left a big mark on us that we couldn’t even get a point. Do I still believe that we can qualify? To have this attitude that we will make it kind of gives you more motivation, more hope.
“I can guarantee that the work, the desire, the honesty, the patriotism to bring a third consecutive Asian Cup finals berth will not be hindered by anything. We still have four more games, starting with Singapore. The most important thing now is to win, no matter what.”
Crucial to that, especially for a goal-shy team, is defensive solidity. “That’s our bread and butter…Centre-back is the only position on the pitch where you need to be so much in sync that it should feel like one brain controlling two bodies.”
Jhingan and the ball-carrying Anwar Ali are India’s first-choice pairing. Before the CAFA Nations Cup, Ali told HT that a shared language makes things easy. Jhingan agrees. “You can have 10,000 conversations off the pitch but the more you play together, the better you understand each other. Finally, after injuries, Anwar and I are playing together again.”
The bronze medal in the CAFA Nations Cup beating higher-ranked Tajikistan and Oman en route has “lifted the mood, 100%. We went to the CAFA Cup with people back home having no hope from us, which was quite right given the form we were in. But the team showed immense character, playing the games away…We knew the country was desperate. We were desperate to repeat what we had done two years before… winning three tournaments, the Kuwait game away. Not to forget that we went to successive Asian Cups for the first time.”
That podium finish had come without Sunil Chhetri. On 95 international goals, the 41-year-old striker is back. “If you want to be the fourth male player in history to reach 100 goals, why waste words on saying how important he is? Let’s just hope we can provide him and the other players the right kind of balls. And that they can get the goals.”
The Asian Champions League 2 campaign has got off to a “bad start” with two 0-2 defeats but “whatever be the outcome of this group this term, we have to make sure that FC Goa get to the next AFC Champions League 2 again. And again. That is how we will grow as a club. Istiklol and Al-Zawraa are more experienced in Asia and hence were better equipped to capitalise on key moments.”
Club and country trying to overcome starting blues, does it feel similar? “The national team has one point,” said Jhingan smiling.
