Liston, the striker Goa is waiting for India to acknowledge

During a recent meeting of the national team, coach Igor Stimac asked which of the boys present were ready to take on the role of the striker. From the players present, Liston Colaco was the only one to raise his hand.

To those following this lad from a young age, this would come as no surprise because the youngster from Davorlim in Goa has always finished as the highest scorer in every All India Football Federation (AIFF) age category competition he has played in.

Liston scored the most goals and invariably his team – Salgaocar FC – either finished as winner or runner-up. Such was Liston’s fluency at goal that he got picked up by an Indian Super League (ISL) team in 2017.

After joining FC Goa, Liston played 12 matches in three seasons – playing a total of 279 minutes and managed just two goals. For a born goal scorer, the climb to the top tier of Indian football was painful as goals stopped coming with little time on the field.

Liston was parched, and still is, because with little playing time, the best is not allowed to flow from his boots and hence the debate of allowing foreign players as strikers in the ISL returns to prominence.

Now playing for Mohun Bagan Super Giants, Liston needs to break through two colleagues Petratos and Cummings – both who have represented their country in the World Cup – to show current coach Antonio Habbas he can be trusted with the role of striker.

India knows that it cannot produce strikers without them playing frequently at the highest level. And, the coaches of all ISL teams know that they need to field the best strikers to justify their own presence in the team and juggling with the foreign and Indian players up front is a twitchy call from the coaches.

But, the one taken against FC Goa by Habbas, put a lot of doubts to rest. It was a difficult call, but one that was intelligently taken by Habbas, as was evidenced in the team’s last game against FC Goa.

Habbas started the match against FC Goa with Petratos and Sadiku and close to an hour brought in Liston in place of the latter. Once Petratos scored, even he was benched leaving Liston to breathe free upfront. That must have been the space the boy from Goa was dreaming of.

In the nine minutes that Liston was alone up front, he had one good crack at goal – through a free kick – and took on the onus with maturity. After long, for once, the striker in Liston was wide awake.

That Liston is ready and does not fear wearing the mantle of striker was evident from the manner he raised his hand to Stimac’s query. But, while raising the hand is one thing, showing intent is another and Liston has it in him to do so. He always did and though he has donned the Indian jersey, he has not played as a striker.

Indian players lack time up front because of an array of foreign strikers picked up by teams in the ISL but the mindset of Habbas at the Nehru stadium in Fatorda is a signal not just to Liston but one that other strikers in India should be looking at gleefully.

Against FC Goa on Wednesday, it was a match between Antonio Habbas and Manolo Marquez and the former came out tops with his mind games. For once, a coach of an ISL team is ready to give the Indian wards a chance to showcase their talent and they did it with a well-deserved win.

Since playing for ISL, apart from the initial first three season burps, Liston has not got anything to disturb his romance with the ball in front of the goal. That love to get the ball behind the goal is as difficult to indite as to witness. He knows he can do it and hence needs the opportunity.

Till date, he has played 86 matches – a total of 5,281 minutes – and scored 14 goals and has 15 assists. With a passing accuracy of 76 per cent and 154 shots – 79 shots on target and 75 off – Liston is the striker Goa is waiting for India to acknowledge.

“I am being patient for my love,” he once said and now it appears that the patience is starting to pay. Surely, Mohun Bagan Super Giants’ coach Habbas could help him keep the vows.