Former Invincible and all-round handsome bastard, Robert Pires, is set to see out his career by taking part in a newly formed football competition in India.
Pires, along with other veteran stars such as Robbie Fowler, Maniche and Fernando Morientes, will be auctioned off to one of the 6 teams taking part.
Each team can have four foreign players and once ‘icon’, the category into which Bobby fits. The games will all take place between February 25th and April 8th, in the West Bengal state, with the competition based on the success of IPL – 20/20 cricket.
Pires, who is training with Arsenal at the moment to maintain his fitness, told L’Equipe, “Since I had nothing in Europe, why not try something completely unknown? I’ve never been over there.
“I am proud to be the first Frenchman to go and play there. And eight weeks is nothing.”
And while he may indeed be the first Frenchman to play there, it seems as if money is doing some of the talking too.
“If my president likes me, it could be €790,000”, said Bobby. “It is a lot of money. I’m not going to complain about that am I? But I’m not going there as a tourist. It’s a new adventure.”
May the *swoon* be with him.
Sounds exactly like the Indian Premier League in cricket. Might draw a few eyeballs to the sport in India, but ultimately fail for long term .We need more grass roots development here and cricket to lose more of its popularity.
I think each team/squad also has to have a certain number of U21 Indian players, but it’s about revenue more than development, no question
Just read that linked article. The group that has signed with the Indian football Association is called CMG-Celebrity Management Group. This really says it all. If its similar to cheer-leading squads, post match parties and what not (exactly like the cricket IPL) ,its possibly gonna be crap. We might have more “celebrities” posing with the players and claiming to be Arsenal fans . Its not as if we don’t have enough wannabe Utd or Chelsea fans here. Franchisees/clubs will want the best players regardless of them being Indian or foreign, so young players are gonna go for a toss here.… Read more »
If the revenue is going to grass roots development, then brilliant. But the politicians run sport in India. They’ll just shove every last penny into their pockets in broad daylight.
For cricket which is a well established sport in india this sort of thing (IPL) is absolutely crap. It distracts youngsters from playing at the highest level which is test. Their dreams can be fullfilled by playing 20-20, in other words easy money.
But for football it might prove to be a bullseye. It will bring more interest from people around the country. It could be the real stepping stone in the right direction. Plus poor football players will earn hefty amount for 8 weeks. Not bad.
Are there any Indian players in the Premiership? Not trying to make a point, just curious.
We do have Indian origin players in England , not the PL though. Michael Chopra for instance.
no grass roots,corporate financial backup,corruption, people’s mentality is what kept Indian football at such a low. But everything’s changing now except for the corruption and may be we will soon (5-6yrs)see a player from India(not origin) play in top leagues around the world ,lately because of the football exhibitions that has being taken part here in India.
Amazing how few players of Asian descent there are in football in general in England.
It really depends on stamina and physicality of the English game at every level. There are non-Indian Asian teams which have really good stamina- S.Korea for instance but don’t have that physicality always required to succeed in England. Most English players,possibly even amateur have a basic sense of tactics. My Sunday League team including me doesn’t have that. Everyone wants to score a goal here.
It is amazing we don’t have asian players in the PL
Even France had Vikash Dhorasoo!
Nope. I believe the highest level any Indian player has played is Sunil Chhetri at MLS outfit Kansas City (or was it Wizards?). Baichung Bhutia had a trial at a League 2 club or something some time ago, but that didn’t amount to anything.
Is Vikash Dhorasoo Indian? He was in Ligue 1(Lyon) some years back.
Mauritius, I think.
oh no! wikipedia is down so we can’t even check!
French.
Great news i am gonna go and see that handsome bastard play, neverbeen to a cricket match but would definitely try and bethere.
WHO FUCKING CARES
well I found it quite interesting…
It’s about our beloved Bobby..you should “Fucking” care
You obviously cared enough to ask who cared. Maybe you’re looking for friends.
It is Bobby we talking about here.
It’s Robert Pires trolling for a laugh. We still love you gorgeous!
Really excited about this league. Truth is that football is struggling in India. For that matter all other sports except cricket is struggling.
Well Bobby could be the first Frenchman to play India but Vikash Dhorasoo has been here on a FIFA mission earlier. He is Indo-Mauritian origin or that is what wikipedia says.
still cant believe it!! le bob dreamy coming to india???
Is that Catherine zeta jones in the background? Also being auctioned?
One thing people are missing is that if this is successful a player may decide to quit playing football in the leagues in Europe and earn a living playing in India. Chris Gayle doesn’t play cricket for the West Indies any more he now is a free agent and plays cricket for whoever he wants round the world.
Nice observation there. kinda agree with that. i guess its too early to judge if it would be a success or not.nonetheless a good thing for football fans in India.i for one would surely look forward to it.
Good luck Bob!
He’s even gone and swooned the lady behind him. Class.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27453474@N02/5550695362/in/photostream/
*swoooooooooooooooooooon*
I dont care if players indian players are developed or not. At this stage, any exposure India gets to top footballers is good. Last week bayern munich was here playing an exhibition match with their full first team.
wanna see Bobby though. Oh, and Tony Adams is going to be here too, managing one of the teams…. Double swoon…
I have been following Indian Football for years now and this Premier League Soccer (PLS) is not they way. 1) This league will only be played in ONE STATE out of India’s 28. 2) India already has a National League mind you it is crap for many reasons. I have always said the MLS model was the way to go for India but people want the England Premier League or Indian Premier League (Cricket) model in which you have like 5 teams in 1 city and have promotion/relegation. These things can’t work in big countries like India. They need a… Read more »
Also I am happy for Pires. He is a great player who I loved to watch when I was young and I hope the people of West Bengal like him as well.
Also note that the top league in India is I-League. This league is only taking place in 1 state in India. West Bengal. I give it 1 season to be honest for the reasons above.
Once during a televised Arsenal game, I saw Henry and Pires talking in the centre circle, and the camera just lingered for a moment on the two of them, fairly close up. What were they discussing? How best to score a goal? How best to overcome a stingy defence? Fancy a kiss? I Lord how I wished they would. Score, I mean. With a ball. A football.
hahahahahha good one mate 🙂 . If Henry and Pires were to kiss then it would not be gay at all. There kiss would actually bring world peace to the world.
Henry and Pires are the only two men in the world who make me have gay feelings. Well, Van Persie sometimes. Oh, and the cast of Mad Men. Oh, and…
Never mind.
i would love to see india produce talented footballers this decade.in the past we had talent but no proper education. with investment and all those academies coming up the future looks good.football has a cult status in india as of now.apart from west bengal there are some extreme fanatics in places like pune,bangalore,chennai and so on.afterall it is only good for football in general if countries like india can contribute
that kind of money invested in I-league would have been better, i don’t know how the kolkata league can help indian football. organisers and star footballers make some descent money, nothing is invested back in football. that’s it.
This all makes sense. He will use this as a way into the spectacular world of Bollywood stardom.
Mahesh Bhatt will make Bobby star with Sunny Leone in the next edition of his trite shit – Jism 2.
This would be completely alien to many here except may be Sunny Leone.. Just google up the rest of the names and words, it would make sense.
I seriously hope this league doesnt kill of the national league – I-league. Thats all.
it won’t. This league will last one year. Fields are shit and interest in West Bengal is only for East Bengal FC and Mohun Bagan AC. The other teams can’t generate a crowd of 1000.
Pires to star in a bollywood movie soon *swoon*