Despite having attained iconic status in India through years of top level performances, footballer Baichung Bhutia still strives to raise the bar.
The gifted striker retains the hunger to score more goals and hopes to put up an even better show in the coming season.
"I always strive to improve. I'll try to play even better in 2004-05," said Bhutia, the greatest name in present Indian soccer.
"But, at the same time, I feel that football being a team game, it is the team performance which matters. My target for the next season is to ensure that whichever side I play in wins tournaments," the 27-year old striker said.
However, he refused to disclose his club preferences for the coming season.
"I don't want to disclose now the offers I have received. Also I would prefer to remain silent now whether I have received feelers from foreign outfits," said Bhutia, who created a sensation by becoming the first Indian to take part in the English professional league in 1999 by joining Manchester's Bury FC. The Sikkimese played three years with the English second division side Bury, till returning to India in 2002.
It has been a fairy-tale story for Bhutia ever since he stepped out of the sleepy Sikkimese village of Tinkitam and landed in Kolkata as an immensely talented 16-year old in 1993 when he signed for East Bengal.
"When I started playing football, I never dreamt that one day I'll turn out for fancied clubs like East Bengal or Mohun Bagan, leave alone playing for India," Bhutia says.
Bhutia acknowledges that it was his uncle Karma Bhutia who made him think big, and played a crucial role in his formative years.
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"But it will be a bit delicate for me to name only a few of them. Because that will be unfair to the others, who have helped me in becoming what I am today," he said.
He crows with delight at the way his career has progressed. "I have no regrets. God has been very kind to me. I'm very satisfied with the way my career has evolved."
In the same way, Bhutia is not prepared to single out any particular feat as his greatest achievement from the game, saying he never gives a thought to such matters. "I never look at my life that way. I just enjoy my game."
A terror to rival defences, the lethal upfronter with quick-silver reflexes, athletic fitness and a cool temperament feels that an innate 'hunger' for goals is the secret of his consistency and success as striker.
"I've always taken one match at a time. You need to have the hunger for goal. You have to sustain the urge to play well year after year."
Bhutia is the leading scorer among Indians in the current edition of the National Football League, and his side East Bengal has already clinched the title.
In spite of leading the national football team to a rare title triumph at the LG Cup in Vietnam in 2002 and tasting success galore with various clubs in India and abroad, Bhutia's philosophy of the game does not permit him to rate any match as his best.
"I have been asked this question at least 200 times. And I have always given the same reply. Every match that I play well and my team wins becomes my best match for the time being, till the next victory comes," he said with a chuckle.
Bhutia as a footballer has been a wanderer of sorts.
Switching from one club to another at regular intervals, he has donned the jerseys of city giants East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, apart from JCT Mills. Overseas, he has spent three seasons with Bury besides a short stint with Malaysia's Perec.
But how has he coped with the rigours of adjusting to unfamiliar locales as far removed as Kolkata, Phagwara, Manchester and Kuala Lumpur?
The darling of the nation's football afficianados asserted that the adjustment part has never been a problem.
"I think I've been quite fortunate in this regard. I never found it too harsh to settle down in unfamiliar surroundings. It has never been that difficult. Also, as I've stayed away from home for long periods since my young days, I have not felt homesick," Bhutia said.
