John Culatto
A FORMER football manager from Gibraltar will be commentating on matches for an Indian national TV station.
Joel Williams, 29, told the Olive Press how his quest for adventure has made him quite the celebrity in the world’s second-most populous nation.
“I firmly believe that one truly discovers himself when he is out of his comfort zone and this is precisely what I wanted to test,” Williams told the Olive Press.
“I saw that coming to India would mean a step up from the football in Gibraltar on the playing field but most importantly off it.”
At first Williams struggled to adjust to the culture, food and language.
“The hardest part for me was adjusting to the mentality of the people here,” he revealed.
“What might seem absolutely normal for us in Gibraltar is weird here and vice versa.”
He went on to help Punjab FC win the league championship in 2017-18 as technical director.
“We were tipped for relegation that season but we managed to pull off the heist of the century and win the I-League,” he proudly recalled.
“It was a surreal moment lifting the trophy as a part of the backroom staff.”
He went back to coaching the following season and was offered a job as a football commentator for TV channel DSports.
“To be the voice people hear when they tune in to watch a football match on Indian TV is indeed something amazing but at the same time it’s rather scary.
“There are 1.4 billion people in India, not 30,000 like back in Gibraltar, so the pressure is multiplied 10 fold.”
Football is a fast growing sport in India, in a country where cricket has always ruled the roost.
