After Germany, Prabhjot eyes Beijing

Prabhjot thinks his coach’s efforts have finally paid off. He has already got his boys cash awards and a few felicitation ceremonies await the team on their arrival back from Deutschland. And Prabhjot is pleasantly surprised at the news: “Really, I haven’t heard anything. Let’s see, we’ll find out when we get back home.”

These things may not matter much for the Punjab forward. His focus has mainly been his responsibilities towards the club, particularly after the Amritsar boy’s goal feast in Chennai.

“To be honest I’m glad that I have been playing well here. Right now, I’m scoring for my club, who are currently second in the German League and that’s what matters to me,” Prabhjot said.

When you broach the subject of awards and rewards, he brushes it aside saying he has had a great run and is doing well with the German club. “I had fun when we won the tournament and now it’s time to move on. I haven’t really been keeping tabs on the news back home, but if the boys are getting cash awards then it’s a good thing.”

Back to his club game, Prabhjot speaks about how the Germans are really delighted to have their Indian counterparts playing with them. His club recently won two of their matches against Leverkusen and HC Raffelberg with Prabhjot scoring in both games.

“We won the first game 5-2 and the second 5-0. But it’s just not me who was scoring. Sardara also scored that day. I hear Rajpal has already scored 4-5 goals for his club and Sandeep, I believe, is having a ball as he’s already pumped in nearly a dozen goals for his club TG Frankenthal,” Prabhjot added.

He also said that when there was no match or training session he and his teammates got together to have their own mini-training camp. “No coaches, no rules. Just plain uninhibited practice. You get used to the conditions here and we prefer it that way rather than go sight-seeing.”

Talking on the benefits of playing with Europeans, Prabhjot said he picked some vital tips on man-to-man marking. “They don’t give you any space to play. Sometimes, you feel trapped and playing in such conditions is much different than attending camps back home. After playing here I have understood that we still need to get a lot better to take on these Euro giants.”

Well, for Prabhjot the fun is over and it is time to return home and attend to the immediate task at hand: Qualifying for Beijing. “We got a standing ovation from the Chennai crowd on the final day. It felt great, but now I think that it’s going to be a series of camps before the Olympic qualifiers.”