After an agonising run of losses and draws Ranbir Kapoor finally had something to cheer about after the team he co-owns, Mumbai City FC, beat Atlético de Kolkata 2-1 at the DY Patil Stadium on Sunday night. Ranbir has been a regular at Mumbai City’s home games and has even travelled away on several occasions. He was happy that today’s win had resurrected his team’s slim hopes of qualifying for the playoffs.“Absolutely, we always hope there’s a chance for Mumbai,” he told indiansuperleague.com in an exclusive conversation on being asked how he felt about the revival of his team’s campaign. “I think the boys played really hard, it’s been an up and down tournament for everybody; obviously, we haven’t qualified but we’re still being optimistic. We hope that Delhi lose and we also hope that Kerala and Pune draw,” he added.The Bollywood star, who is a big football fan and plays the game regularly, was happy that the Hero Indian Super League final would be played in Mumbai and it would serve as an extra motivation to his players to give off their best in their last game. But more than that, Ranbir was overwhelmed with the support of the fans, who turned up faithfully in numbers to support the team at home, match after match. “The fans have been amazing and I think that’s what’s important in football, the fans who are supporting your team. The Mumbai City fan club that has been coming for every match, has been terrific. The number of people coming to watch the match has been increasing, so things are looking up for Indian football,” he said.Asked who was the most outstanding player in his team today, Ranbir did not hesitate to pick out his goalkeeper Subrata Paul. “I don’t think we give credit to our keepers much and I think that Subrata was outstanding today; he’s guarded the post with a lot of fierceness and he’s been amazing for the team,” he opined.
