The Malayali kid who toured India to learn football finds his niche in Slovenia

India's celebrated youth football coach, Bibiano Fernandes, demands excellence. He wants fresh recruits to show a willingness to observe, absorb feedback and do whatever is required to help the team succeed more than anything else. He calls it coachability.

Earlier this year, when Mumbai-Malayali Yohaan Benjamin was heavily recommended by Shillong Lajong coach Bobby Nongbet to the India Under-19 camp, Bibiano could tell straight away that the boy belonged.

The 18-year-old winger had joined late but impressed Bibiano in training to earn valuable minutes in India's SAFF U-19 championship success in May.

"The first thing I saw in Benjamin was that he had a very good left (foot)," Bibiano said. "And he was very good in 1v1. He was also ready to work hard and adapt to do what the team wanted," said the Goan, who has had a transformative effect on India's youth national teams, with five titles.

Though the preparation was short, Bibiano insisted on getting hardwired into Yohaan that he must not settle for mediocrity. "The challenge was to make the boys understand the level difference at the Under-19 level outside India," Bibiano said.

He made Yohaan and the other boys realise that the mistakes they could get away with in India might be punished with a goal elsewhere in Asia or further abroad. This attention to detail was evident in the way the India U-17s, coached by Bibiano, recently upset mighty Iran to book a berth in the AFC Asian Cup.

Yohaan got this philosophy drilled into his footballing brain, and it has since come to define his notable development in youth football.

Six months on, Yohaan is a key member of the Under-19 side of NK Bravo, a Slovenian first division club. Recently, he became the first Indian to play in the UEFA Youth League, starting against European heavyweights FC Porto. He is also among the top-three goal-scorers for Bravo in the domestic NextGen Liga, which has crossed the halfway stage.

A well-thought-out career path
Before reaching the footballing haven of Europe, Yohaan had an expansive pan-India education that began with a Barcelona-run academy in Bengaluru, followed by a brief stint at Punjab, and finally finding a second home in the north-east, in Meghalaya.

Yohaan's parents, Gautam Benjamin and Anuli Katakam, realised quite early that their son had a talent for football. They made the difficult decision to discontinue his regular schooling after Class 8 from the Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai in 2021. Since then, Yohaan has been doing open schooling, spending the majority of his time training on football grounds.

Yohaan says his best decision yet was joining Shillong Lajong in early 2022 and spending three seasons with them. "I think I got quite lucky because the Northeast is one of the best places in India for football. I was 14 when I went to Shillong, and immediately after we were playing with the Shillong Lajong reserves," Yohaan said.

The opportunity Meghalaya presented was at par — if not the best — with anywhere else in the country. "Since I was 13-14, I have been playing with players who are 20-21 and this was for the last three or four years. I think that helped me so much when I went to Slovenia. Obviously, the intensity is so high there, and you have to adapt, but I was at least used to working harder," Yohaan said.

Yohaan played for Lajong's reserves, winning the Shillong Premier League and finishing runner-up in the Meghalaya State League.

"He came to Shillong with a purpose," said Bobby Nongbet, Yohaan's coach at Lajong. "He adapted to the culture and lifestyle and even the kind of football we play here. He was very focused."

Yohaan stayed longer than a few of his academy colleagues and Bobby remembers that he was on the verge of breaking into the senior squad before opting to experience Europe. "He could have made it to the I-League team had he stayed," Bobby said. "I always bring Yohaan's attitude and persistence in training as a reference to the younger boys we have now."

Finding Kerala in Slovenia
Yohaan's father, Gautam, is a Malayali who was born and brought up in Bengaluru. The boy does not speak Malayalam as his father does, but he has fond memories of spending vacations in Kozhikode and Kochi with his cousins.

Funny enough, Yohaan was reminded of his roots in Kerala when he reached Slovenia. Striker Matej Poplatnik, one of NK Bravo's fan favourites, played for Kerala Blasters in the ISL. Poplatnik left just before Yohaan landed there, but the staff at Bravo had heard plenty of nice things about Kerala from the senior striker.

"A lot of my teammates who trained with the seniors asked me about India and Kerala. They had heard stuff from Poplatnik about a packed-out stadium for Kerala Blasters matches. Some of the physios have also asked me about Kerala Blasters. That's the only team in India they know about, because of Poplatnik," Yohaan said.

Yohaan is more connected to Kerala Blasters than to the state itself because his cousin, Som Kumar, is another former player of the ISL club. The lanky goalkeeper, who had a brief spell with the Blasters in 2024-25, is also in Slovenia, with top-flight side Radomlje.

European dream
Inadvertently, but Yohaan's decision to leave India in early 2025 to continue his footballing journey in Europe could not have been timed better.

Soon after he left, club football in India came to a grinding halt as the All India Football Federation failed to strike a deal with its commercial partner. The ISL and the I-League, the top two divisions in the men's football pyramid, have been suspended since September.

While the footballers in India are hoping their season will somehow start by early 2026, Yohaan has his reasons to await the New Year. The Slovenian league is on its winter break and will resume by late February, and Yohaan has a lot of expectations for the second half of the campaign.

"Only half of the Slovenian season is finished. My goal is to play as many matches and hopefully win the league. Right now, we (Bravo) are top of the table with 40 points but there is only four points difference between the top-four. There are about 14 matches left but it is extremely hard."

For Yohaan, finishing the season on a high note would mean he could sign his first professional contract in Europe. Yohaan, however, is not losing any sleep over his future. "Everything has come perfectly well so far. We won the Shillong Premier League, then I got to go to the India camp and win the SAFF and come to Slovenia. Here, I played in the UEFA Youth League, and I am training well. I even learnt to cook and, more than that, to be independent. I would love to stay here," Yohaan said.