“I put my right foot forward whenever I enter a stadium,” confessed Steven Dias to indiansuperleague.com. The Delhi Dynamos FC midfielder has risen from the eastern suburbs of Mumbai to achieve what a typical Mumbai lad might have been reluctant to pursue about 15 years ago – a career in football.From the suburbs of Kurla to his favourite country, Spain, Dias has travelled and seen it all. “The life I live here is fast, but I am into it. When I go abroad it usually takes me a week to start missing Mumbai,” said the archetypal Mumbaikar. Dias highlighted the role of the city and his family as he looked back at life. He grew up in Kurla near the Don Bosco school. Cricket was everyone’s first choice back then but not at the Don Bosco Technical School. “When I was small I used to go there with my brothers to play football. Initially we played for fun, but gradually people started to comment and say I was good. That’s how I became a footballer,” explained Dias in a nutshell.“My brothers were always into football and helped me. My parents didn’t know much about the game. Bimal Ghosh, the Air India coach, spotted me and invited me to practise with his team. He told me to join the Central Bank of India team and promised me that if I did well that I would be able to join Air India afterwards,” recalled Dias while narrating his journey into professional football.Mumbai being the home of cricket left very little space for other sports to thrive in. But Dias carved his way out and believes that today the younger generation recognizes that. He commented, “If I talk to any kid, they know of football, Indian football too. When I started playing, the kids only knew cricket. But nowadays whenever I go, they recognise me. They ask about football, which is encouraging even today.”The former India international believes that Mumbai needs a lot more grounds dedicated specifically to football for the game to flourish in the city. He is hopeful with the arrival of the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) things will change.As he summed up his journey to the top, he credited his success to the undying support of his mother. “My brothers used to play football, but one developed a knee injury and after that they stopped supporting me. My mom never stopped supporting me, by giving me money to travel and so on,” said the winger who has represented Air India, Mahindra and Churchill Brothers. So when he got his first pay cheque as a player from the Central Bank of India, he put it straight into his mother’s hands so it could be used for the whole family. He always wants to do something for the family ever since.The former India international has made his name with his set piece deliveries and also by delivering pinpoint crosses for his strikers. Dias is among the top crossers in the ISL. He has created numerous chances for his compatriots to score and will look to create several more as the group stage moves to its conclusion. He’ll of course keep doing something for his family as well.
