By Tim Dowling Published 13 May 2020
In 2017, the former Rangers, Aberdeen and Leeds footballer Davie Robertson left Scotland to become the manager of Real Kashmir FC, a team in India’s second division. Based in Srinagar, the largest city in the territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the club is in the middle of a constitutionally autonomous region that has long been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan. A TV documentary charted Robertson’s struggles, and his special way with profanity, after Real Kashmir were promoted to India’s top division.
In August, Robertson went back for more – and so did the film-maker Greg Clark. Return to Real Kashmir FC (BBC Scotland) is the result. If either Clark or Robertson ever fretted about how much drama could be extracted from a second helping, those worries were quickly supplanted by bigger ones.
On the day Robertson’s plane lands, the Indian government abolishes Kashmir’s devolved parliament and imposes direct rule. This leaves half his team stranded at home while he sits in Kolkata awaiting the start of a pre-season tournament, the Durand Cup. Reporters try to draw him on the political situation. Unusually for Robertson, he holds his tongue.
Fortunately, team and coach are reunited in time for their first match – and Robertson’s particular brand of pep talk. “We are Real Kashmir and we don’t lose to any fucker,” he tells them.
Whether he is ranting from the sidelines or reeling from oxygen deprivation while playing tour guide on a 5,500-metre (18,000ft) Kashmiri peak, it is impossible not to warm to Robertson. He is funny, bad-tempered, courageous and partial to using the C-word as a synonym for “man”. You never for a moment doubt his commitment to the team, which includes his son Mason, a handful of African players and a 30-year-old winger from Salford. But high altitude is not his thing.
“Worst day of my life,” he tells his wife, Kym, over the phone. “And I’ve played at Albion Rovers.”
Robertson cannot mask his mounting frustration as the dire political situation threatens to upend his season. His half a dozen Kashmiri players are under particular strain, unable to get any news from home as the tournament progresses. Later on, watching a prayer service at the Thikse monastery with his other son, Jordan, Davie gets a little overwhelmed. “For some reason, I broke down in tears,” he says. “I don’t know why.”
“He’s definitely never done that before,” says Jordan.
The challenges of managing a team in the world’s most militarised region provide plenty of drama, at least up to a point. Not quite halfway through, an ominous caption – “Three months later” – appears. It transpires that Real Kashmir’s start to the season has been repeatedly postponed, while the military occupation, local Kashmiri resistance and a general strike have turned Srinagar into a ghost town. To stay match-fit, the team has been playing endless friendlies against a local side, whose coach Robertson has come to view as a sworn enemy.
“Here comes Mourinho,” he says, watching his opposition arrive. “Look at him. He’s got the fuckin’ folder, he’s got the fuckin’ suit on. It’s a bounce game.”
The fortunes of Real Kashmir offer a unique, compressed reflection of the wider political turmoil – or they would if more actual football were played. The last match featured in the film is their first home game of the season – the first public event permitted in Srinagar in four months – played on Boxing Day.
With the internet shut down across the region, Robertson goes in search of an illegal connection to research the opposition before the match – and finds himself in a dodgy neighbourhood overrun with stray dogs. In Srinagar, it is said, there are more dogs than people – and there are 1.2 million people.
It should not count as a spoiler to reveal that coronavirus does what a military lockdown could not: cut short Real Kashmir’s season with five matches still to play, leaving them somewhere between limbo and fourth place. There, abruptly, the story has to end.
According to news reports, Robertson, Mason and Kym – who had flown to Kashmir just before the airport closed – remained stranded in Srinagar for weeks, only arriving home this month. You have to wonder if he has another season of this in him.
“If there’s a job in eastern Mongolia, I’m sure David will find it,” says Kym. I for one would follow him anywhere.( TheGuardian )
