Kolkata: Vikash Dhorasoo deftly side-stepped the question on Manchester City falling foul of Premier League regulations but shared his thoughts on Zinedine Zidane becoming France’s head coach. And he did that with a smile, even prefixing his answer with ”you know, I played with him.”
“It is wonderful that Zidane is the head coach. If there was one person who could have succeeded Didier Deschamps, it was him. And he has this aura,” said Dhorasoo, leaning back and spreading his arms. “He is also a coach who knows how to win and that is important because every tournament France play, they play to win.”
From any other former Les Bleus player, this would have been the default response. But Dhorasoo isn’t that. In 2011, while speaking to HT, Dhorasoo was asked how he would evaluate Zidane. “Do you have any other question,” he had said. Interview over.
In India then for an arthouse film his company was planning, it had been five years since he had played the last of his 18 games for France. But if Dhorasoo had made peace with losing his place to Zidane who had come out of retirement to help France make the 2006 World Cup, he wasn’t showing it. That statement was more in line with “Substitute” his documentary on France’s journey through the 2006 finals. It was also his account of moving from mainstream to the margins.
Dhorasoo had been an integral part of France’s qualifying campaign but played little against Switzerland and South Korea spending the rest of the 2006 finals on the bench. Being a footballer and not playing made him feel like crying, he has said while talking about the film. In 2004, when Dhorasoo replaced Zidane against Mexico, he was booed. Once he came out of retirement, then-coach Raymond Domenech preferred Zidane to the slightly-built player of India-Mauritian origin. Dhorasoo’s lament had not been private.
But that was 20 years ago. “I have moved on,” he said, after meeting journalists at the Salt Lake stadium here on Thursday.
Speaking in French, which was translated by Gianluca Joseph who handles his media, and English, Dhorasoo said he didn’t want to speak much about City being found guilty of almost all the 115 charges of financial foul play. Because he is more comfortable with technique than tallying numbers, he said. But, accepting his former club Paris St-Germain’s “level of investment changed pretty much everything”, he defended it, saying “they had a project.”
“Yes, because of PSG, Ligue 1 lacks suspense but it is up to Lyon and Marseille to find ways to be competitive. PSG have not begun in the best way so maybe this will be the season (where there domination ends).”
After five rounds, PSG, Ligue 1 defending champions who have won 12 of the last 14 editions including the last five, are sixth five points behind leaders Monaco.
In favour of “bi-nationalities” – in our 2006 team, David Trezeguet could have played for Argentina; Gonzalo Higuain was eligible to represent France and Michael Olise for more than country, he said – Dhorasoo, 52, said it would help India progress and “create an identity for their diaspora.” He would be happy to be the bridge, he said. “Moutoussamy can play for India if the conditions are right,” he said. Dhorasoo was referring to DR Congo’s’ Samuel Moutoussamy who played in the 2026 World Cup.
Here to watch Saturday’s friendly between India and Brazil, Dhorasoo said he was also looking forward to picking Carlo Ancelotti’s brains now that he is a certified coach. “We haven’t met in 20 years and I was happy when he responded to my text,” said Dhorasoo of the Brazil coach who was his coach at AC Milan.
“I would like the match to end 2-2. India is part of my DNA and Ancelotti is a former boss,” said Dhorasoo while leaving the room. He wasn’t the only one laughing.