New Delhi: Multi-club models, excessive VAR interventions and long seasons—football, like anything else, is always in a perpetual revolving door of change, and most of those changes are lamented as the “end of football as we know it”. That being said, more open-minded and public talks of mental health within football is also one of those changes and stands out as a positive force in these times. It’s also intriguing that this pioneering change can be attributed to an Indian.
Vinay Menon, known widely as perhaps the first “wellness coach” to step foot in the Premier League, is best remembered for his 13-year tenure at Chelsea Football Club, having worked with the likes of Didier Drogba, John Terry, Frank Lampard, along with subsequent generations of football superstars.
Another layer of intrigue is placed upon this story when knowing that before joining Chelsea, Menon hadn’t even seen a football match, let alone be familiar with top-flight football’s ins and outs. Instead, his journey began in Cherai, a village close to Kochi, Kerala, with his maternal grandparents instilling an affinity to Bhakti Yoga within him. Further arming himself with formal education in Physical Education at Pondicherry University, and a diploma in Yoga at the Kaivalydham Yoga Institute in Pune, Menon left for Dubai.
A chance meeting
From 2004 to 2008, he tended to high-profile clients at a luxury hotel as a “wellness specialist”, helping personalities like celebrities, businesspersons and popstars cope with the enormous pressures related to their respective fields. This eventually brought him into a collision course with a relative of Roman Abramovich, the Russian billionaire and the then-owner of Chelsea. Impressed by Menon’s services, his name was quickly recommended to the Blues owner, who insisted that the Keralite move to West London and give private sessions to the rest of the Abramovichs.
However, in 2009, Menon’s life flipped on its head, when Abramovich decided that Menon’s skills were fit enough for him to start working with Chelsea’s first-team squad at Cobham. From the outset, the challenges felt unsurmountable to him. Neither was he well-acquainted with the world of elite football nor were the players eager to seek his services. Menon now attributes that initial hesitation to the success the club was enjoying at that time, unwilling to change a tried-and-tested winning formula.
“Roman asked for it to happen and it happened,” Menon said, in a recent BBC interview.
The breakthrough
Menon’s opening breakthrough came during a regular lunch at the Chelsea canteen. Menon and Drogba had struck up a conversation before the iconic striker asked Menon to demonstrate how he could help him with his craft. Soon enough, Drogba became a believer and the floodgates opened. Joe Cole, Frank Lampard and John Terry, among others lined up at Menon’s door, where he helped them remove mental hurdles, and cope with the intense pressure and scrutiny associated with elite football, helping them open up emotionally.
Vinay Menon 🤩
The Indian connection behind Chelsea’s Champions League victory 🏆
Proud Moment for India 🇮🇳 as Mr. Vinay Menon hailing from Kochi was behind the recent success of Chelsea FC as a fitness trainer. pic.twitter.com/SnDzhoVxWi
— IFTWC – Indian Football (@IFTWC) May 30, 2021
This was the beginning of a journey that would see Menon become not only an integral part of a backroom staff responsible for delivering two Champions League and three Premier League trophies but also a beloved figure at Cobham. He still holds those moments close to his heart, especially after he had to bid farewell from Chelsea when Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, the new owners of the club from 2022, began staff-cutting measures.
Since then, Menon has constantly strived to expand his horizons, mixing his roots within Yoga and his newfound affinity with football. During his last months at Cobham, he also began working with the Belgian men’s national team, becoming part of a backroom staff tending to the top-ranked team in FIFA rankings at that time, with their crosshairs firmly placed at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
The Homecoming
Unfortunately, Belgium crashed out of the tournament in the group stages, with players and coaches embroiled in messy drama. The experience was still far from a waste. Realizing that he was perhaps one of the few Indians working in Qatar as a competitor, rather than a spectator, he turned his attention towards home.
Acting as a global advisor to the All India Football Federation (AIFF), he accompanied AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey, and the then-general secretary Shaji Prabhakaran to Brussels, where they discussed possible collaborations with the Belgian FA.
Menon is a staunch advocate for greater integration of sports in Indian education and wants the youth and Indian parents to see sports as a promising career. “In India, you need to convince the parents first that it’s not just engineering, medicine and government jobs that will give you the money,” he said in a Times of India interview.
From Yoga teachings passed down from ancestors to the luxury hotels of Dubai to the Cobham training grounds of Chelsea Football Club, this is the fascinating story of Kerala’s Vinay Menon. Football Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
