‘Hume Dada’ embraces life’s lessons
WORLD CUP QUALIFYING: Well-travelled Canadian forward took long road back to national team recognition
There are terms of endearment for Canadian striker Iain Hume in Kerala, a coastal state in the south of India, and in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, a fourhour flight away.
He’s “Hume’ttan” to the Malayali people, who backed him at Kerala Blasters in 2014, when Hume, out of work and on a whim, joined the Indian Super League for its inaugural season and went on to make the final and win player of the year.
He’s “Hume Dada” to Bengalis, who cheered him on at Atletico Kolkata last summer after he’d moved to the champions and finished runnerup for the Golden Boot with 11 goals in the three-month season.
And judging by the Indian soccer fans who fill Hume’s Twitter feed, this mutual love for “older brother” is not an easy thing to accomplish.
“It’s great that everyone can take me in because I’ve done everything I can to learn about their culture and eat their food — and I don’t like curry,” Hume said with a laugh this week as Canada prepared for a monumental FIFA World Cup qualifier against Mexico at B.C. Place on Friday (7 p.m., TSN2, TSN 1410).
“I’ve just enjoyed it tremendously — meeting people. I’ve got some good friends there outside of football, which is important to me. I don’t just like being football oriented because you become in your little bubble and you never really experience the culture.
“I’ve met great people. People who never want a thing. Just company. They’ll come around just to spend half an hour with me or I’ll go around to theirs.
“My father and sister and uncle were able to visit and travel with me and they understand why I fell in love with the place.”
Of all the Canadian players called up for these home-and-away qualifiers against 22nd-ranked Mexico, none have won over coach Benito Floro in a more unconventional fashion than Hume, 32.
Two years ago, without a contract for the first time in 14 professional seasons, disheartened, he went where no player goes to resurrect their national team career.
A friend in the media told Hume about the Indian Super League, which was just getting off the ground. The friend was headed there to do some work for the league. Hume figured: Why not?
“I’d never even heard of it,” said Hume, an energetic and infectious forward who was born in Edinburgh, raised in Brampton, Ont., and moved to England at 15 to start his career with Tranmere Rovers before moves to Leicester City, Barnsley and Preston North End.
“My friend gave me a guy’s number with the league and I told him my situation — Canadian international, played 500 games — and he said, ‘100 per cent we want you.’
“They entered me into a draft — 40-odd international footballers — and I got selected.”
Hume joined Kerala Blasters, whose majority owner is cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and who were coached by ex-England keeper David James.
They lost in the 95th minute of the final and Hume moved last summer to Kolkata, where another cricketing great, Sourav Ganguly, is co-owner.
Hume says of the city, “There’s people everywhere and everywhere is an hour away, even if it’s a few kilometres.”
But he has loved his time there playing in front of 60,000 fans and he could return this summer for a third ISL season.
Last month, Kolkata’s sporting director helped Hume land a contract with Ponferradina in Spain’s second division, an experience Hume’s equally excited about and one that pleases Floro, Canada’s Spanish coach.
So in two short summers, Hume has become a household name among Indian soccer fans and he has worked his way back into Canada’s squad at an incredible moment after making just three appearances for Les Rouges since 2013. Who’d have called that? “To be a part of the first two years (of the ISL) and to have built up a name out there, it’s crazy, honestly,” said Hume, who has played 42 times for Canada and impressed Floro at a January camp, where the two discussed Hume’s role.
“I think consistency-wise and statistically, last season was the best I’ve had in 10 years. Benito and I had the same views on how I fit in and I’m just happy to be back.
“To have my achievements noticed and recognized — OK, in a so-called ‘lesser league’ — was a big thing for me.”
Few will appreciate the week more than Hume, regardless of how much he plays.
Canada has not reached the Hex — CONCACAF’s final round of World Cup qualifying — since 1997. Hume was 13 then, growing up on a steady diet of Liverpool and Hearts and soon to be a star for Canada’s youth teams.
He has lived the obscurity and the disappointment with Canada’s senior team, including the crushing 8-1 loss in Honduras that ended their 2012 qualifying campaign — although Hume will rightly tell you that it really ended when they blew an earlier chance to beat Honduras at home in Toronto.
It’s a reminder, perhaps, that even a tie Friday could be the difference in the end.
While other Canadian players have said that 2012 campaign is behind them — especially after beating Honduras in November — it’s still on Hume’s mind. Perhaps because he didn’t play in that November rematch. He watched on TV, as he always does when he’s not called up.
He reflected on that 2012 scoreless tie at BMO Field like it was still fresh.
“We battered them,” he said. “It could have been four- or five-nil and that’s not flattering to us. We should have won the game.
“Then to slip up at the final hurdle, and the way that we did, there’s a lot of people involved in this team who know there’s a point to prove — not to the fans, but to ourselves because we are good enough.”
The top two countries from this penultimate round will advance to the Hex. Mexico is heavily favoured, which leaves Canada to scrap for second spot with Honduras and El Salvador.
Canada has a home win over Honduras at B.C. Place and a road tie at El Salvador to show for its efforts so far. Those return legs are in September.
Mexico won its first two games easily enough.
Hume looks at this Canadian roster and marvels at the progress. The welcome addition of wingers Junior Hoilett and Scott Arfield. The emergence of young MLS star Cyle Larin up front.
“The competition for places has just blown up,” Hume said.
He looks at his fellow veterans and marvels at them, too.
“You’ve got Atiba (Hutchinson) in his prime — this guy’s a freak of nature. He’s 33 and he’s still running games,” Hume said. “And you’ve got Jules (Julian de Guzman) still doing his thing. In my eyes, he’s in the top 10 players in CONCACAF at 35 years old.”
Hume’s teammates are thrilled to have him around, too, at the very least for his leadership.
“I’m glad Iain will be with us on Friday night because he’s contagious and he’s a guy you want in your locker-room,” said midfielder Will Johnson.
Hume has paid his dues in the game. No Canadian has made more professional appearances in England. He even endured a life-threatening skull fracture in 2008 while playing for Barnsley against Sheffield United — the 18-inch horseshoe scar, rising above his left ear, a constant reminder.
He’s thrilled at 32 to have a reward like this in a Canadian shirt: Mexico, home and away, with 150,000 combined fans between B.C. Place and the famed Estadio Azteca, where he has never played. A chance to completely alter the perception of Canadian soccer.
“To know that we’re finally getting to that stage in Canadian soccer — to draw 50,000 people in my time,” said Hume. “I remember playing at Swangard and getting 7,000 people, so the leap is massive.
“Even if it’s 20,000 cheering for Mexico (on Friday), that’s 30,000 Canadians who’ve decided to take the time out of their night to come and support us — not because it’s NHL, not because it’s basketball, but because it’s soccer.
“Now we have to go to that next step. It’s as good a time as ever (to make the Hex) and if we can do it with the fans we’ve got involved, that’s five (more) home games and we could fill B.C. Place.
“The fans are doing their bit. The CSA is doing their bit. Now it’s down to us. There’s nothing to say.
“If we can hear B.C. Place erupt, imagine what that’s going to be like?”