‘Yamal can recreate Messi magic, but hope he doesn’t end up like Neymar’

Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and now Lamine Yamal, La Liga has produced some of football’s biggest stars, yet Spain’s premier football league is still not a big fan favourite in India. José Antonio Cachaza, whose new book ‘Breaking into Cricketland: A Spanish Executive’s Attempt to Sell Football in India’ draws on his stint as La Liga managing director, talks to Dwaipayan Datta about the challenges of winning over Indian fansHow difficult was it to sell Spanish football in India?It was not easy, given the way the sports ecosystem works in India. Cricket doesn’t just get 90% of the audience, 90% of the expense of broadcasters is around that sport. So, everyone else is fighting for the remaining 10%. And the fact that La Liga is behind the English Premier League in the eyes of football fans makes it even tougher. The Clasico (Real Madrid vs Barcelona) apart, everything else is a minor event compared to EPL. But football is a product of tradition, and EPL has been in Asia for years now, while La Liga has been in India in a big way only over the last 10 years.Ronaldo left just a year after you took over. How difficult was it to sell La Liga after the big exit?It doesn’t help when a star leaves, but Real Madrid and La Liga are bigger than any player who played there. Fans may start following football because of a star, but once they are hooked to a team, they follow it all their lives. Otherwise, after 10 years of underperformance, Manchester United wouldn’t still be among the top three followed clubs in India.Lamine Yamal is the flavour of the season. Can he bring back the Messi magic?Yes, I think Yamal can recreate Messi magic. He is the biggest star in the making, but he is still a young boy of 18. And that’s what worries me, I hope he doesn’t become another Neymar — a broken toy who promised so much but underachieved after he left for Paris Saint-Germain. The fact that Yamal may not be fit for the World Cup because of a hamstring injury that he suffered playing for Barcelona makes me sad. It is because of the insane number of matches that players these days are expected to play for club and country. The stars have to show up everywhere, which is leading to so many injuries.Do you think Yamal vs Kylian Mbappe can rekindle the madness of the Ronaldo v Messi rivalry?They can, but it’s difficult. The only parallel that I can draw with the Messi v Ronaldo rivalry is Magic Johnson vs Larry Bird in the NBA in the 1980s. Two magical players of a similar age and at their prime playing in the same league — that’s just a dream situation. Kylian is about 10 years older than Yamal as well, and it is on La Liga to market it for the next 5-6 years.What is your take on Vinicius Junior, a polarising figure loved and hated in equal measure? Is he good or detrimental for the Real Madrid and La Liga brand?In football, these double-faced players (with the face of the devil and god) sell. When you are a complicated character playing for such a huge organisation like Real, everything can get distorted a bit. But it is definitely not detrimental that he wants to project himself as a fighter against racism in football and sports, because that’s something that exists. And I would say it is good to have a player who creates so many headlines.The World Cup is less than a month away, and no Indian broadcaster has picked up rights yet because the reportedly $100m ask from FIFA is too high. What do you think about the deadlock?I have written about how Indian broadcasters are investing less and less on international rights. But I think the amount paid for the Qatar World Cup in 2022 was foolish. As per reports, it was $50m while Spanish TV only paid 35m euros and Spain was a participating nation. The broadcast value has to be much less this time because most matches will be played in the middle of the night in India. Having said that, FIFA can’t allow a World Cup without an Indian TV audience. So, a deal will be reached, but it may be last-minute.What is your take on the mess that Indian football is in right now? It was such a struggle to get the Indian Super League going, and teams got only 13 games. How big a blow is that for a nation that hopes to play in the FIFA World Cup in the near future?Well, the good news is that they had a season after all. I have friends in Indian football, and I was following the situation. I think it was a total misjudgment of the situation by AIFF. They thought Reliance was making a lot of money from ISL, which they were not. The fact that the connection between investors and the federation was broken is not a good thing at all. And you cannot expect to be playing in the World Cup when there is a lack of competition, lack of good pitches for kids to play, and so on. Having said that, in places like Goa or Kolkata, there is no lack of passion for football. I was at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata for the 2017 U-17 World Cup final between England and Spain. There were 60,000 people at the ground, unthinkable even in Spain.Finally, is Spain the biggest favourite of this World Cup?Well, the European champions are always considered one of the favourites. But if you talk about the quality of players, France are right up there, with Portugal and Spain. Then, there’s Argentina and Brazil. I know there’s a lot of talk that Brazil aren’t the best, but never discount their coach, Carlo Ancelotti.