India was about to witness its football team walk out for its first ever FIFA World Cup, and it was only fitting for the Sports Ministry and the Indian government to felicitate the Indian footballers who had excelled at the global level and had played a significant role in putting India on the global football map.
Narendra Modi had graced us with his presence at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium and along with Rajyavradhan Singh Rathore felicitated the legends of Indian football.
But they ended up making one glaring error, when former goalkeeper, Bhaskar Ganguly, wasn’t called up to receive his award, despite his name being present in the list. Instead, Rajasthan footballer Magan Singh Rajvi collected the shawl and memento from Narendra Modi when Ganguly’s name was called out.
The officials though recognised the goof-up and felicitated Ganguly during half time while also apologetically apologising to him.
“There was a mix-up but as soon as we came to know of it, we decided to rectify it. Bhaskar was later felicitated privately at the half-time of the India vs USA match. We also apologised to him for the incident,” an official told PTI.
I M Vijayan, Bhaichung Bhutia and Sunil Chhetri were also amongst those who were felicitated by the Prime Minister.
The Indian colts lost their opening game to USA but would be hoping that they can use the home advantage to their benefit in the remaining league games against Colombia and Ghana.
India next play Colombia on the 9th of October at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi
