© ISLWhen it comes to football, John Abraham scores on several fronts. He plays the beautiful game in real life, with considerable élan, and in reel life he has scored with ‘Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal’ in the past and will add another to the score sheet in the near future with ‘1911’, a film about Mohun Bagan’s epochal triumph in the IFA Shield tournament just over a century ago. The hunky Bollywood action hero and former model is now being seen in another avatar, as football club owner, having recently taken a stake in the recently launched NorthEast United Football Club, which will take part in the Hero Indian Super League (ISL), and its affiliate, Shillong Lajong FC, that competes in the I-League and other domestic tournaments. Showing his commitment to his new club, Abraham was present on the opening day of the domestic player draft and slipped into his new role as effortlessly as he has essayed more action-oriented roles on the silver screen.He could well have chosen to head down south and ally with the Kerala club, given his ethnicity and place of birth, but Abraham instead opted for the sunrise sector, due to his friendship with Larsing Ming Sawyan, owner of Lajong, and his desire to contribute to football development in the eastern outbacks. “Our name, NorthEast United FC, speaks about our philosophy, We represent the eight states in the region, the seven sisters and one brother (Sikkim); we’re very clear that the future talent and 70 per cent of the talent for the Indian national team comes from the North-East and that’s why my concentration was more on the North-East,” he explained. The 14 players named by NorthEast United at the draft all hail from the region, barring young Kerala goalkeeper Rehenesh T P. While conceding that his team had a slight advantage over the others since it was pre-set (Goa too enjoys a similar advantage – both clubs picked players from their I-League affiliates and did not pick anyone in the ISL draft) and they had their systems in place, Abraham felt that since there were great Indian players in the draft, no team was really at a disadvantage. Commenting on their comparatively youthful outfit, Abraham said most of their players come from their under-19 and under-20 teams, because their grassroots programme is very strong, arguably one of the best in the country! “That’s why most of our players are really young players. Even our foreign players, when it happens, are going to be very young guys. Most of them,” he revealed.“Our name, NorthEast United FC, speaks about our philosophy, We represent the eight states in the region, the seven sisters and one brother (Sikkim); we’re very clear that the future talent and 70 per cent of the talent for the Indian national team comes from the North-East and that’s why my concentration was more on the North-EastJohn Abraham, NorthEast United FC Abraham said his club had no corporate backing and the people behind the endeavour were just a bunch of guys who were passionate about football and wanted to do something for the game. Even Joan Capdevila was sourced by a friend who is a pilot and who had done a scouting agent’s course. “I believe that it is the marquee signing of the tournament in a way, getting Capdevila who is a 2010 World Cup and 2008 Euro Cup winner. And he’s such a sweet guy. He’ll be a real asset to the team, he plays left back but we’re hoping he’ll play central and cover up for a lot for us,” Abraham, who was on the all-star team that presented the recent World Cup telecasts on Sony Six, said. Probed about whether NorthEast United would play tiki taka football by virtue of having the Spanish icon on board, Abraham replied that it would depend on the coach: “I’d love to say that we’d play tiki taka, but if you see today from an international context, every coach has figured tiki taka out. It’s passé! I don’t know what my coach has in mind, so we just have to figure out what we’re really playing out there.” Asserting that he will be a “completely hands on” owner, Abraham, who also co-owns Delhi Waveriders which won the Hockey India League early this year, has promised that he will be present at all home games, maybe even at away ones. “We’ve got the right mix of owners, the right mix of visionaries in the team, and honest purists who believe more in the sport than in the commercial viability of anything else. Call us stupid but we’re very passionate at this point of time,” he signed off.