In 2014, a 44-year-old David James became player-manager of Kerala Blasters for the inaugural season of the Indian Super League. It was no calamity.
You probably remember ‘late period’ David James as the man who won an FA Cup with Portsmouth in 2008 and replaced poor Rob Green at the 2010 World Cup.
Years later, however, after spells with Bristol City and Bournemouth and then in Iceland under former team-mate Herman Hreidarsson, James became player-manager of Kerala Blasters, a brand-new team competing in the first ever Indian Super League.
James was one of eight ‘marquee’ players in the ISL alongside Luis Garcia, Elano, Alessandro Del Piero, Robert Pires, Freddie Ljungberg, Joan Capdevila and David Trezeguet.
But there was an extra level of celebrity around James’ Kerala Blasters, whose owner was cricketing legend and national icon Sachin Tendulkar.
Between October and December 2014, James oversaw 17 matches for the Indian side, playing in 12 of them. And while he didn’t pick up any silverware in the southern hemisphere, his performances at the age of 44 were nothing short of miraculous.
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