Discussing your fears with your team helps you remain positive about the future: Kean Lewis

27-year-old midfielder Kean Lewis is well-known in the Indian Super League circuit. Mostly, it's for being an integral part of the trophy-winning team, Bengaluru FC. Kean has been a part of national and international clubs like Houston Dynamo FC, Mohun Bagan and Pune City FC, before joining Bengaluru FC. He speaks to us about life as a footballer during the lockdown, the future of the sport, Sunil Chettri's captaincy, and more.Excerpts:

There's no two ways about it, actually. We aren't able to make up for it as there's no indoor exercise that acts as a good compensation. On a normal day, we do exercises that include us running on tracks for 8/9 kms. Apart from this, freestyle sets, and then there's the sport itself. So compensating for that is not possible. But we're giving it our best to match up.

I have a habit of finding different ways to stay occupied at home. I don't like being idle even for a minute. So, I take up tasks to complete on a daily basis - like household chores and bringing in vegetables and groceries. I've signed up for a couple of online courses. These are relating to fitness, coaching, dealing with injuries that one can incur in sports, and so on. Football was the only thing I studied after high school. So, now I'm signing up for courses to supplement that degree.

Football has been a central element of my everyday life. I have always worked other parts of my schedule around it. Now that I'm not able to practice on the same scale, I'm figuring out a few recreational activities. My favourite is more of a family-oriented activity. We try to do one new thing a day. For example, yesterday, we enjoyed a few rounds of trying out origami at home. These attempts don't have to be successful at the first go, it's fun when you give it a try. I also indulge in a few TV series but that's only because I have time on my hands now, it's never going to be a habit. Instead, I'm into nature and wildlife-related documentaries. They're much more interesting and leave behind a lot of knowledge for the viewer.

Yes. We end up having group video calls, every other day! Most of us are free during the day, after completing our household chores and daily workouts. So, we end up watching a lot of films and TV series on various OTT platforms. We discuss some of that and also give each other suggestions on what to watch next. We're definitely anxious as we don't know our future, post lockdown. But, we try to ease ourselves, indulging in fun activities to keep our minds off it. Discussing your fears with your team helps you remain positive about the future.

Many safety measures will be in place. I'm hoping that everyone realises the importance of hygiene - both public and personal. Apart from this, proximity will be another factor that we have to keep in mind. For a sport, it's tough to figure out what to do exactly. We cannot practice social distancing on the field for instance. So far the authorities haven't shared anything related to football post lockdown.

I joined Bengaluru FC in 2018, after my stint at Pune City FC. Though my track record wasn't great, Bengaluru FC decided to take me. They even gave me an extension contract later, in 2019. These facts are self-explanatory in showcasing how the team is, to every member. They work very hard to make each one of us feel like we are part of a family. Usually, players stay in hotels while playing for the team. Here, the authorities give us apartments to make us feel as if we were at home.
There is also the opportunity of playing with young players on the team. I come from a time where football wasn't taken seriously by parents as a choice of profession. I'm lucky that my parents were supportive enough to get me to study the sport, besides play it. They always wanted me to be as good as possible at whatever I did. It's nice to see a reminder of that kind of love and sacrifice by parents, in the form of young players.

Calm, composed and friendly, that's Sunil Chhetri for you. It's a delight and a matter of pride to be his teammate. He's changing history with his talent and with his knack for captaincy. Having the talent and also honing leadership skills is rare. He has both.