Seaborne: I was so glad to quit India for Hamilton
FOOTBALL is booming in India, as evidenced by its Super League’s ability to attract world-class players such as Alessandro del Piero, Marco Materazzi and Roberto Carlos in recent years.
Dan Seaborne didn’t need much persuading, then, when he was offered the chance to experience life in Kolkata after his contract at Partick Thistle expired at the end of last season.
Alas, the defender’s 5,000-mile journey turned out to be a waste of time and, almost immediately, he triggered a clause in his contract with Indian club Mohun Bagan which allowed him to renege on the deal if he wasn’t happy.
Seaborne discovered that life in the Ganges Delta wasn’t for him and no sooner had he arrived than he returned to Scotland to sign for Hamilton Accies. With his international clearance coming through late on Wednesday, he’s set to make his debut at home to Ross County this afternoon.
It will all be a far cry from playing in front of a crowd of 62,000 in the Calcutta derby, but the 29-year-old Englishman has no regrets.
‘It was a decent standard and the fans were brilliant, but I just wasn’t feeling it,’ said Seaborne.
‘Other things were coming up and I was thinking I’d like to pursue them. That probably made my mind up in the end and showed me my heart wasn’t in it. They play in three separate leagues out there, including the local league which is a big one in Calcutta.
‘The team I was with had a big rivalry with East Bengal and they have huge crowds at their games — it’s like their Rangers v Celtic. They also play in the ISL, which is the Super League, and they play in the I-League, which is a big league with other teams from around the country.
‘You don’t actually play as many games as you might think, though. You play 12 in the local league, 12 in the Super League and about 20 in the other league, so you play quite a few games but not as many as you might expect being in three leagues.
‘It’s a strange set-up, but other people seem to like it. Darryl Duffy was at the same team as me and he’s absolutely loving it out there and doing really well. The fans have really taken to him and they all love him, so fair play to him. It’s a great place but it just wasn’t the right timing for me. The one thing that is better over there is the curries!’
Seaborne insists he was inundated with offers from home and abroad before and after his brief time in India.
‘I decided to go over there after getting my last contract offer from Partick Thistle and a few other teams in Scotland,’ he said. ‘There were also a few offers from teams in England’s League One which were decent, but I decided to go abroad. Greece, Turkey and Cyprus had been possibilities but then India came up and I thought: “Why not?” ‘I went with that but when I got out there it just wasn’t for me at this point of my life. My missus couldn’t come out, I couldn’t take our dog with me and that was the toughest part, being out there on your own.’ The ex-Southampton and Coventry centre-back insists he will have at least one more foreign affair before he hangs up his boots.
‘I will definitely play abroad — I just don’t know when that will be,’ he said. ‘My partner, Sophia, is doing a psychology course just now, so she’s here for this year and next year definitely, and then she’s going to live in Dubai. She is going abroad to live anyway, so I’ll go off on my travels once she’s settled.’
Accies have tied Seaborne down for a year albeit he was vague about the length of agreement.
‘I have no idea,’ he claimed. ‘I don’t care about stuff like that, it’s not for me. I’ve no idea about money or length of deals or anything.’