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Chris Punnakkattu Daniel, a football expert, columnist, journalist
and media expert. An integral part of indianfootball.com, he has done
many assignments of international repute including FIFA World Cup, UEFA
Champions League and also being a presenter and commentator for many
leading german media channels. You can follow him on his website www.chrispd.de
Joydeep: Please tell our readers about your early childhood life. How did football become a part and parcel of your life?
Chris: I was born and raised as the son of Keralite parents in the western German city of Versmold and I was very fortunate to grow-up in one of the most recognized football nations in the world. I did my studies at the primary school and the high school at my hometown Versmold, before I went on to get my qualification as a Media Designer.
The beautiful game of football is part of social life in Germany and you can’t live in the heart of Europe without getting in touch with the sport! You automatically grow up with football at school, in the media and in any place you happen to be. So it was no coincidence that I started to play football with my friends and watched the Bundesliga on the television. The 1986 World Cup was the final nod I needed to breathe football, while I was stunned to watch Diego Armando Maradona and his impressive Argentinean side winning the FIFA World Cup.
My interest in Indian football started during school time as German friends used to ask me regularly, why India isn’t capable to find eleven talented footballers out of a population of one billion. Things started off from there and it took a new level when I joined Arunava Chaudhuri and his university project IndianFootball.Com in late 1999. The rest is history…
Joydeep: Being born in Versmold, Germany did you have any boyhood club? Which club do you support and why?
Chris: Well, I still enjoy playing football regularly and I’ve even don the jersey of a local club in my childhood. But I never considered to play club football at a senior level in those days and preferred to play regularly with friends for fun or at any charity/corporate functions. It is the typical cliché of an Indian son concentrating more on the studies. (smile)
I started to support FC Bayern Munich when I was six or seven years old – and I never changed my loyalty to any other club from then on. Bayern had a special flair and they were a very successful team. I loved to watch them playing and winning the Bundesliga!
Anyway there’s a second club I support and which I consider as my “home club”. It’s the 2nd Division club DSC Arminia Bielefeld. The city of Bielefeld is near-by Versmold and I have close relationship with the city since my childhood.
Joydeep: Were you a little sceptical when u decided to become a football journalist? Having worked on a large number of projects tell us which has been your most memorable one.
Chris: Actually it was a coincidence that I got into the field of (football) journalism. It was in 1999 during my school time, when I got to know Arunava Chaudhuri and his university project IndianFootball.Com. We got in touch and a few months later Arunava asked me, if I would be interested to help him with the site. IndianFootball.Com was a hobby for all of us, where we combined several interests like journalism, football, designing and more. I started my qualification as a professional Media Designer after my high school graduation, while still running IndianFootball.Com. IndianFootball.Com was my entrance to the field of football and sports journalism. It opened the door for me and gave me the opportunity to work with several national and international media like the PA Sport (Press Association), BBC Asian Network and many more. So it just happened to me and I never had a sceptical feeling of becoming a journalist! I had the chance to do all the things I loved!
Well, there were many highlights in the last decade and each of them is very special to me. I attended and covered many FIFA events like the World Cup, the UEFA Champions League, conferences around the world, Indian national team camps, etc.
But I would consider the Oliver Kahn farewell match in Calcutta as one of the most memorable highlights of my journalistic career! I was assigned as an expert and co-commentator for German tv channel n-tv for their live coverage of the Mohun Bagan AC vs FC Bayern Munich match at the Saltlake Stadium.
Joydeep: There are a large number of sports enthusiasts in India who are ready to jump into the line of sports journalism given a chance. What is your advice to them and how should one go about to achieve success in this line.
Chris: The interest is just the starting point to become a sports journalist. Anyone can write, but there’s one big difference between a good and a poor journalist: The quality of the written stuff! Never write something with superficial knowledge!
Youngsters interested to become sports journalists should be eager to learn and to advance their skills every day! Read a lot and compare the writing styles of national and international journalists. Compare their styles and learn to differentiate good and poor articles! It will help you to find your own style of writing!
Use the net to publish your articles. Create a blog and publish your articles regularly and read the feedback of the readers to fine-tune your skills. Try to get a traineeship at a newspaper/media house to take it to the next level.
Joydeep: Describe your time at IndianFootball.Com.
How has working with Arunava and co. helped you? Chris: IndianFootball.Com had the greatest impact on my life! It was a great experience for me to be the COO and Assistant Editor-in-Chief of India’s Premier Football Site and it helped me to gain a lot of experiences in the different fields of the football business. We worked in the fields of journalism, management, consulting, marketing, scouting and a lot more.
It’s a big difference, if you do a profession at a company you joined just for the job or if you run the baby you created by your own hands, while spending your own spare time and money into it. It was a real delight to see it growing over the years. The whole team behind the site was like a family for each of us and our motivation was always to be actively help Indian football.
IndianFootball.Com can be described as Arunava’s and my oeuvre as we managed to take the portal from a small hobby to a professional company. Sadly we had to close down the operations earlier this year…
IndianFootball.Com helped me to experience a lot of things, which many fellow football fans keep on dreaming their whole life and it’s an honour to be actively involved in the development of the beautiful game.
Joydeep: You have been closely associated with both Indian and German football setup. List some of the areas in which we should work upon to improve our footballing infrastructure.
Chris: The German football setup is one of the best in the world – be it at the club or national level. Indian football can learn a lot from the professional structures in Germany, but it would be a mistake to think that we could take a one to one copy of the German system and implement it to India! No, that’s not possible as we need to consider the local needs and circumstances.
Football in India is a on a long journey with “professionalism” termed the final destination. We need lot of new young professionals in the clubs and federations with new ideas and serious plans to take the game forward. It’s good to see the development in the recent past with cooperates showing their interest to invest in Indian football. But we are still in the early stages.
Indian football needs a re-structured grassroots system, new top-class stadiums and training grounds, cultivation of the fan culture in a modern way, professional marketing, etc, etc, etc… The list is long and it’s a tough task!
We can take Indian football to the next level, if all of us – clubs, federations, media and fans – work together and not against each other in their own interest!
The AIFF has been working in the right direction in the recent years, although the pace of the whole progress could be much faster…
Joydeep: What are your thoughts about India’s prospects in AFC Cup 2011?
Chris: India has been drawn into a very tough group with Australia, Korea Republic and Bahrain. We have to be realistic about the chances of Team India at the finals! The 2011 AFC Asian Cup will be a learning experience for Team Indi a as we face top Asian sides! No one can expect our boys to win against teams of this quality. I just hope for three matches with the Indian team giving them a good fight!
India qualified for the Asian finals after several decades and it is a real highlight for Indian football and its fans! But the successful qualification for the AFC Asian Cup does not mean that we are on par with the other participants! It’s just another step forward for our national team and we have still to climb many more steps before reaching the level of the top Asian sides. The 2011 finals might be even too early for us!
I’ve noticed certain hype in the recent weeks amongst India fans with many of them expecting that Baichung and co. will win against the top Asian sides. I hope the fans will support the Indian team at the finals and be realistic about our chances at the continental championship! It’s not all about the result in January; it’s all about the experience!
Bob Houghton and his coaching staff have done a lot of good things for the Indian team, but I feel the the laurels of the past months and years have been forgotten by many in the football fraternity due to the recent defeats by the hands of superior teams… We have to wait and see, if Bob will continue after the 2011 AFC Asian Cup or not. His decision to stay or leave will be very crucial for the future of the Indian team and their performance…
Joydeep: What are the different projects/assignments you are currently working upon? Do you have any intention of coming to India and working in some area for the overall development of football?
Chris: I’m currently working as a freelance journalist and media designer, while working closely with Arunava Chaudhuri to evaluate several projects and their virtual value to help Indian football. Further I’m trying to keep football fans up to date with articles and special coverage’s on my website www.chrispd.de !
I’m always willing to help Indian football with my expertise and I’m open to the idea of relocating back from Europe, if I see the genuineness of the project.
Joydeep: What are your future plans?
Chris: I’m keeping all my options open and Indian football will always play a major role in my future plans. It has been always an honour to be actively involved in Indian football and I hope my association with Indian football will last for many, many years!
Joydeep: What is your idea about sportskeeda.com? Give us some suggestions on how to expand our base and how to improve ourselves.
Chris: Sportskeeda.com is an excellent platform to get all the latest news and insight stories for all sports lovers. It is an ideal platform for bloggers, journalists and sports enthusiast to contribute their articles and stories to a broad readership.
The quality of a news portal like sportskeeda.com will always depend on the quality of the content delivered to the readers. So it is always important to keep the standards high and to establish a reputation as a reliable source for the users!
My congratulations to the sportskeeda.com team for their effort and I wish you all a successful future in the world of online media! I’m looking forward to contribute to your site!
Thank you very much for a splendid interview.
