CHENNAI: A cruel fickle mistress, someone once said of the beautiful game. A second is all it takes for a game to change, for tournaments to be won, for careers to be ended. One moment, you’re on top of the world, the next you find yourself on some obscure part of the football map, answering what went wrong.
And when you wind back time, trying to answer that question, you realise that the difference was the slightest of margins — a bad tackle, a poor decision, a matter of seconds. In 2005, Rene Mihelic and Jaime Gavilan would not have known each other, yet there was every chance they were going to run into each other on one of Europe’s big battlefields. Instead, a decade on, they now find themselves teammates in — of all places — India.
In 2005, Mihelic was 17 and making waves in Slovenia. He was the youngest player ever to appear for the country’s biggest club Maribor, known for propping up in the Champions League. Before he was old enough to drink, Mihelic had scored in the UEFA Intertoto Cup against a Villarreal side that boasted the likes of Diego Forlan and Santi Cazorla. At 19, he became Maribor’s youngest ever captain and Slovenia’s youngest ever international (he’s second-youngest now). The world beckoned and the likes of Valencia were winking in his direction. Naturally, the son of a part-time referee/part-time security guard began to dream big. “I had just signed my professional contract, when I scored against Villarreal,” Mihelic says with a hint of wistfulness.
Offers came, from Valencia and Greek club Olympiakos, but Maribor held firm. When they finally decided to sell, it was to Portugal’s CD Nacional. That’s when his career started to plateau. “It was difficult,” Mihelic says. “I was young and it was the first time I had been away from my family.”
After Nacional, Mihelic became one of the most dreaded labels in the game — the journeyman. Appearances in Hungary, Latvia, Bulgaria and Israel followed. He quit halfway through his Israeli stint fearing for his family’s safety. “There were terror attacks five minutes from my place.” It was then that John Gregory, who was managing in Israel during Mihelic’s time there, called him to Chennaiyin. Mihelic is still only 29.
Gavilan had a more clear-cut route to stardom. He was progressing through the youth ranks of Valencia alongside such future stars as David Silva. And he was highly rated, playing for every one of Spain’s age group teams. By 2005, he had broken through to Valencia’s main team, played in the Champions League and La Liga. Luis Aragones called him up to train alongside the Spain team, a prelude to the seemingly-inevitable permanent step up.
Then tragedy struck. His right knee ligaments went, costing him almost an year. When he was finding his way back, his other knee gave way as well. Gavilan grimaces when he talks about those times. “A lot of things go through your head. You don’t know if you’d play again. And that first training session after you’re back, you’re thinking ‘no way, I can play with this team!’. Maybe a season later, you start feeling good, but you’ve lost something — a bit of pace or you hesitate before a tackle.”
Gavilan went onto have a top flight career in Spain, playing nearly 200 times for Getafe before moving to Korea and ATK in 2015. His career, though, is still a treatise in what could have been. “Maybe,” he sums it up. “I was in a very good moment, with Valencia, with the national team. But you know, life is like this.”
vishnu.prasad@newindianexpress.com