If things work out, Satyajit Sadanand, all of 26 years old, will be remembered as the man who changed the course of Indian football. If they do not, he will become a footnote, albeit an interesting one when someone sees fit to write a history of the sport in India. Interesting, because not too many people who have managed to graduate from an Indian Institute of Management (in this case, IIM-Lucknow) and secure a lucrative offer from an i-bank (JP Morgan Chase in this case) would throw it all away for football.

This is India, after all, not the UK or Italy, both countries with vibrant (and commercially successful) professional football leagues. Football is popular in India, especially in West Bengal, Kerala, Goa, and parts of Maharashtra and Gujarat. India, however, isn't exactly a world-beater in the game, and has never been that, although it was the best team in Asia for a brief golden period in the early 1950s. Nor has the game received the kind of support that cricket has from broadcasters, sponsors, even spectators.

Yet, it is down this path that Sadanand has chosen to walk. He is going back to Baroda to work for the cause of Providence, a local football club he and a few friends founded way back in 1998 (he was 18 years old at the time). "I want football to regain its lost glory," says Sadanand with the kind of intensity that only young men chasing their dreams can summon. "I want it to become as big as cricket in India and professional soccer in Europe."

It is evident young Sadanand has been influenced by his father C. Sadanand, an employee of Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd (IPCL), once a government-owned company whose ownership has since passed to the Reliance Group. Apart from furthering the cause of industry in India-the objective behind their creation-public sector firms also saw themselves as patrons of sports. In IPCL's case it was football and Sadanand Sr. represented the firm in several state-level tournaments. "Nobody knew who Vijay Hazare was in the early 1970s," he reminisces, referring to one of India's best-known cricketers of the time. "Mewalal and P.K. Banerjee were the most popular stars then." The first named, for the record, was the man responsible for India's football gold in the 1951 Asian Games in Delhi (he scored the only goal in the final against Iran).

For a long time, Sadanand Sr. has hoped to see the sport get its due. Which is